
Book Jj-X- 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



OUT OF THE CRADLE 
INTO THE WORLD 



OR 



Self Education Through Play 



How thf Chilli Mill,/ ami Body Starts Going, First Nature-taiight, 
then Teacher-taiigltt. 



"if your child's to understand 
Things that other people do. 
You must let his tiny hand 

Carry out the same thing, too 
This is the reason why 
Baby will. 
Never still. 
Imitate whatever's bv" 



T. BENJAMIN ATKINS. 



PUBLISHED liV 

THE STERLING COMPANY, 

COLUMIJUS, OHIO. - BOSTON, MASS. 
1895. 




N_. 



Kntered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1895, by 

T. Benjamin Atkins, 
In the Office of the Librarian ot Congress at Washington. 



To the memory of Froebel whose genius, in rec- 
ogmzing play as a means of education, made 
the stone which builders rejected the head of 
the corner in the Kindergarten School, is THIS Volume 
Dedicated : 

And to my dear wife, Came, the memory of whose 
happy childhood contribtUed much to its pages. 



CONTKNTS. 



Introduction 7 

CHAPTEPv I. 

Prolonged Infancy and Childhood, Pro- 
longed Opportunity for Education 11 



CHAPTER II. 

Play, the Natural Occupation of Childrhn. . 23 

CHAPTER 111. 

Children's Play, the Germ of Manhood's 

Ways and Work 35 

chapter IV. 
Rude Play, the Result of Incomplete Brain 
Development. The Child Will Out- 
grow It 49 

chapter v. 
Physical Development Through Play 73 

chapter VI. 
Mental Development Through Play 87 

chapter VII. 

Play, a Self-Education in the Use of the 
Senses 107 

chapter VIII. 

Make-Believe Play, a Self-Education of the 
Imagination 1 33 

(5) 



6 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IX. 

Song-Play, a Self-Education of the Emo- 
tions '163 

CHAPTER X. 

Mimic Play, the Natural Language of Chil- 
dren 177 

(.CHAPTER XI. 

Play, a Self-Education in the Industrial 
Arts 215 

CHAPTER XII. 

The Use of Toys, a Self-Education in the 
Use of Tools 229 

chapter xiii. 
Imitative Play in its Origin, Spontaneous 
Memory 247 

chapter xiv. 
Imitative Play in its Results, Self-Educa- 
tion IN Conformity to Established 
Custom 267 

CHAPTER XV. 

Play, a Self-Education in Sociability 289 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Play, a Self-Education in Morality 309 

CHAPTER XVII. 

Play, Prophetic of Taste, Talents, and 
Future Pursuits 325 

chapter xviit. 
Effect of Play on After- Life. 345 



INTRODUCTION. 



^ DUST pile suggested Adam made of dust, as 
/^*" mentioned in last Sunday's sermon ; and away 
the little bareheaded urchin went to play, " creating 
Adam out of the dust of the earth." 

What is it working in the mind of the child which 
excites the desire to dramatize every thought and word 
and work of older people, and to act them in play. 
This daring, childish endeavor is not content to imitate 
all the deeds of man, but even invades the attributes 
of Deity. 

Are these puerile pranks worthy of serious, scientific 
study? Is there method in this infantile folly, revealing 
world-wide and enduring truth? Does the child build 
wiser than he knows, and failing to make an Adam, is 
this untiring effort to be and to do indispensable to 
making a man out of himself? 

Little children must be understood in order to be 
well and wisely trained. 

Child -Play interprets the meaning and value of 
play. Beginning at the beginning, it shows how young 
life starts going ; and how those puerile sports practiced 
in the nursery minister to the growth of body and mind. 
It sets the common-place in a new light, and points out 
how the natural activity of the child becomes nature's 
great training school, and the wondrous way in which 

(7) 



INTRODUCTION. 



the child works in that school for his own intellectual, 
social and moral advancement. It reveals the connection 
between the early activity of the child and the character 
and career of later life, and makes a practical application 
of the whole to the nursery and school education. No 
other subject so inseparably connects the small and 
the great, the serious and the ludicrous. It is as rip- 
pling as the brook and as deep as the sea. It reveals 
the startling fact that the busy idler is toiling on the 
momentous task of self creation, and that his silly 
amusements have a meaning as deep and divine as 
human nature. 

The subject is old, and it is new. In the nursery it 
is as old and universal as childhood. In literature it is 
new. From time immemorial childish play has been 
wondered at, and laughed at, and cried at : it has been 
related as anecdote to flatter the pride of the fond 
mother, to amuse the visitor, to spice the newspaper, 
and to spoil the child. More recently it has been 
thought upon, written upon, and published upon in a 
fragmentary way; but no book has been ofiered the 
public devoted exclusively to the significance of the 
early natural activity of the child. 

This work is intended to meet a demand and supply 
a deficiency. It is not founded on theory, but on obser- 
vation and treats of what is being lived before our eyes 
every day. 

The child of our observation is not a Lord Fauntle- 
roy — a little angel dropped from heaven once in a 
thousand years as a revelation of the possibilities of 
children in some far-ofi" golden age ; nor is he an imp 



INTRODUCTION. 



cast up from Tartarus and reincarnated in Peck's Bad 
Boy — a retribution to sinful parents. But he is every 
child, each twelve months through his own self- 
advancement growing one year larger, one year wiser 
and one year better. 

The style is popular, all technical terms and meta- 
physical discussion being carefully avoided. Myth, 
parable, allegory, and anecdote are copiously used for 
illustration. Child life cannot be described without 
anecdote. 

The record of men's deeds is dignified as history; 
but children's deeds never rise above anecdote. As the 
acorn contains the oak, so the child's sayings and 
doings contain embryo history. But in the mention 
of children, the hi(gh) sounding part of the word is 
omitted, and it is called story or anecdote. 

The little fellow who said he could wash himself 
very well if he only had some one to "zamine" the 
corners, will some day grow into a man competent to 
watch his own corners in the management of political 
and military campaigns, or perhaps in "cornering" 
markets of the world. Manipulating those big corners 
will restore the omitted prefix, and his achievements 
will then be read as hi-story. 

In these pages the child is treated at once as the 
creation of God and a production of nature. The work 
is a Paidology — the natural science of childhood. As 
such the unfolding child life is set in both contrast and 
comparison with unfolding plant and animal life. The 
natural history of the human being is paralleled with 
other branches of natural history. 



10 INTKODUCTION. 



Primitive man was a grown up child, and the shortest 
and easiest way to the study of primitive man lies 
through the study of child's play. The child's method 
of entering life and understanding the world is the 
best interpreter of ancient history. The doll-baby 
period in the life of the individual answers to a like 
doll-baby period in the development of the human race. 
The myths, mingling with ancient lore, are but the 
fossil dolls and mummy make-believes with which 
the first born children of mankind played when the 
world was young. In a few cases the author has yielded 
to the temptation and run the parallel. 

It has been the author's constant aim to make the 
work of general interest to all, and of special interest 
to two classes : 

First. To all those who were once children them- 
selves. 

Second. To parents, pastors, teachers, and all who 
are in any way interested in the training of those who 
are actually children now. 



CHAPTER I. 



Prolonged Infancy and Childhood, Prolonged Oppor= 
tunity for Education. 

" The angel bows her head, her lips press tenderly the brow of 
the babe that awakens vaguely to life, and the little angels sing — 
Rejoice, mortals, for a child is boru ! Rejoice, happy family, for 
here is a new guest for your fireside ! Rejoice, this little being so 
feeble which we bring to you is to be the joy, the dear care of the 
household, its hope, its love." — Selected. 

/^HILDREN enter life looking forward and believ- 
^ ing a good time coming. " Five going on six " is a 
very observing period. It is also the age of ambition 
and purpose forming. As a rule there is nothing more 
lofty than the ambition of those little juveniles who 
have looked carefully over the whole range of human 
endeavor and made up their minds what they are going 
to be. 

With thought moving onward in glad expectation, 
they talk of the paths by which they will go out into 
the wide world as workers at a later period. 

A group of children full of hopeful presentiments 
were expressing their preferences : 

One little philanthropist would be a doctor and heal 
all the sick. 

The farm with its broad fields, cows, colts and lambs, 
with its orchards and freedom, seemed a paradise to 
another, and he would be a farmer. 

(11) 



12 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



A pugnacious little hero was going to be the captain 
of a big ship and sail out west and bombard the 
Indians on the plains. 

The youngest of the group had seen the house put 
in special order for the visitor and all the luxuries 
brought to the table for the occasion, " Oh ! I'll be a 
stranger," said he, " I'll be a stranger.'' 

It seems this has been the position occupied by chil- 
dren generally. They are not understood. They are 
little strangers. Older people understand each other 
by understanding themselves. 

But these little folks have minds, methods, and 
nei^cessities of their own. In fact they are so utterly 
unlike other people that the law of life and liberty to 
the adult would be oppression and death to the child. 

Those aimless little hands always so busy, what are 
they doing ? Those curious eyes always looking, what 
bewildering future do they foresee? Those restless 
minds always asking questions, what mysterious prob- 
lem are they trying to solve? 

Children are unknown quantities, but not non-enti- 
ties ; very lively little units in the sum of life. 

What they stand for to day, no one can exactly tell. 
What they will stand for to-morrow is harder to tell. No 
scales can weigh them. No chemist can analyze them. 
No mathematician can tell the sum total of their lives. 
Who are they? What are they? Where did they come 
from ? What will be their mission in life? These are ques- 
tions all involved in deepest darkness. Each human 
life is a mystery unknown and unknowable here. But 
it is an incontestable fact that children have an exist- 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 13 

ence. They are units of some kind or other in the 
problem of life — living, moving little things; hungry 
in body and hungry in mind. They must be housed, 
fed, clothed, loved, trained, and guided at a cost of care 

and patience in money, hard to estimate ; say $ . 

Who would dare to fill out that blank with dollars and 
cents? It is not to be filled with corruptible things as 
silver and gold. 

" Papa, fat will you take for me ? '' 
I answered, "A dollar, dear little heart," 
And she slept, baby, weary with play. 

O, that dollar meant all the world to me, 

The land and the sea and the sky. 

The lowest depths of the lowest place — 

The highest of all the high. 

Nor all the gold that ever was found 

In the busy world findings past 

Would I take for one smile of my darling's face 

Did I know it would be the last.'' 

Each babe is a new marvel; a new miracle. Around 
the cradle as no where else, cluster contradictions, pos- 
sibilities, and superlatives. 

What prompts the child to take his first step out into 
mental activity? How does he begin to think and 
speak and remember and express his likes and dislikes? 
Why does he linger so long in childish weakness and 
spend so much of his precious life in childish play 
before beginning intelligent and serious work in this 
great working world? 



14 CHILD- PLAY, OR 



In possession of all our grown-up greatness, there is 
danger of losing touch and sympathy with the beginner. 

The flower is so unlike the ripe fruit ; the method of 
support is so different for the dependent little bird in 
the nest from the full-fledged bird in the air ; the child's 
thought, nine-tenths physical demonstration and his 
every word either voiced in or associated with muscular 
action, is equally unlike the abstract meditation of older 
people. 

To understand children we must cling close to nature. 
To facilitate the study, we complete the cluster of 
natural history and put the child in contrast and com- 
parison with the young of other animated beings. 

For convenience, we suppose our little hero was born 
in the constellation Gemini — The Twins. The signs 
were in his head, indicating that his career would be 
distinguished by brain activity. Compared with other 
living beings his brain is pounds where theirs are 
ounces. 

Born in the constellation Gemini, nature made his 
birth contemporary with young life everywhere abound- 
ing ; young fish life in the water ; young bird life in the 
air; young animal life in forest and field; and young 
insect life everywhere. 

Differentiating the infant human from other forms of 
infantile life, the infant human is the feeblest, frailest, 
and slowest of growth to independent, self-reliant exist- 
ence of all that heaven has made to breathe and live. 

The infant child is described in the superlative 
degree, but all the superlatives are on the negative 
side — negative at the beginning. 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 15 

In size, how tiny and comic the little nestler — super- 
latively insignificant and dependent. 

If quantity of brain is prophetic of his future, he will 
turn the scale and come out ahead some day. 

But the delay in infancy and childhood is so long, 
comparatively so long. 

Other living beings hurry on to maturity, while 
human beings spend one-third of their existence in 
adolescence. 

The ephemereal insect completes all the experience 
of life in a day. Born in the morning, at noon it is 
the parent of a progeny like itself, and in the evening 
death removes it to make room for another generation 
equally ephemereal. 

Human life is of slow growth compared with bird 
life. At six weeks the bird perfect in feather and song 
has left the nest ; at six months it has mated and built 
its own nest and set up housekeeping for itself. 

The animals with all their ponderous weight and 
gigantic physical force hurry on to maturity, while the 
babe still lingers near the cradle. In two days most 
young animals gain possession of their physical force 
and learn the use of their limbs to stand and walk and 
run. At two months they are as fleet of foot and per- 
fect in sagacity as their parents. At two years they 
have completed the whole circle of life in size and 
strength and parentage. 

But — while birds of equal age are leading an inde- 
pendent life in the air ; while animals have grown to 
be kings of the field and forest— the child is still an 
infant, just learning to take his first tottering step and 



16 CHILD -PLAY, OK 



to speak his first stammering word, just beginning to 
show signs that he is born an intelligent being ; and 
when both bird and beast have grown old and departed 
from the stage of action, the child is beginning to be a 
man or woman. 

But how inferior to other forms of animal life in the 
beginning. 

How superior in the ending. 

While the child lies helpless and passive in the cra- 
dle, even the insect has been endowed with an instinct 
that makes it from the first independent of a mother's 
care. But the endowment of the infant is a mind cap- 
able of improvement by education ; a mind capable of 
infinite growth and creative thought. As a child he is 
helpless, passive, plastic, and dependent on the service 
of others. As a man he is the representative of Diety, 
the co-worker with God, and has dominion over the 
beasts of the field and power over nature, and all her 
wild forces are subdued to his use and made his serv- 
ants. At his touch the world itself is remoulded and 
recreated into final and finished form. 

This is the explanation of delayed infancy. It is 
education that makes the man, and prolonged infancy 
and childhood is prolonged opportunity for formative 
education. 

The birds and the beasts are children of a wealthy 
house. Nature, rich and prodigal with her gifts, has 
supplied all their wants. They are comfortably and 
often beautifully clothed, yet they toil not, neither do 
they spin. They are bountifully fed, but they do not 
sow nor gather into barns. Bird and beast life con- 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PliAY. 17 



sists of a few simple acts directed towards seeking 
food, avoiding danger and propagating their species; 
and this they do under the unconscious impulse of an 
instinct as automatic and void of reason in its opera- 
tion as the unfolding of the lily or as the running of 
the brook. 

Consequently, birds and beasts have nothing to learn ; 
no thought for to-day or to-morrow ; no problem to 
solve for improved present or future well-being. They 
live over again the lives of their ancestors. 

Heredity does everything for them ; education noth- 
ing. Spontaneous nature, instinct, organization com- 
plete at once, supply all their wants. They need no 
prolonged infancy affording opportunity for prolonged 
education. 

Nature acts on, and for beasts and birds and insects, 
making them what they are. 

But it is the province of man to take nature under 
his care and by his creative genius to supply what he 
finds wanting. He is born to the necessity of having 
dominion over the beasts of the field, to subdue the 
earth and create the condition of his own well-being. 
His high destiny is to be master, and the fields and 
forests and forces of nature his servants. 

By the use of chemical and mechanical forces he 
makes himself next to omnipotent, and is constantly 
carrying the world and himself forward to higher 
results and nobler developments. 

As tiller of the soil, he removes the primeval forests, 
and gardens and orchards and grain of his own choice 
take their place. His skill adds to the beauty of the 



18 CHILD -PLAY, OR 

flower and the luster and lusciousness of the fruit. 
Under his tutilage the wild animals are domesticated 
and with affectionate fidelity add to his and their com- 
fort in many ways. The ox and the horse under his 
guidance cultivate the fields ; the cow and bee make 
his table to flow with milk and honey. The sheep and 
the silk worm provide him with clothing. By his skill 
he has transformed seas into dry land and deserts into 
water springs. He has not only made the winds, 
waves and lightnings his servants to convey himself 
and the products of his creative genius from place to 
place, but in a measure he has gained command of the 
clouds and rain. 

In short, through human genius, the whole course of 
nature has been turned into different channels, and all 
that is most beautiful and interesting is the work of 
man's handicraft. Creative thought has promoted him 
from the bottom to the top of the scale, and made him 
the fearless and intelligent sovereign of all the ani- 
mated creation. 

And it may be affirmed, without fear of success- 
ful contradiction, that the prolonged infancy and 
childhood is the guarantee of all man's power over 
nature and the foundation of all his progressive- 
ness. The essential feature of man is the reciprocal 
improveableness of himself by improving the world 
he lives in. And the sweet pranks of childhood, 
doing in play what they see older people do in work, 
is nature's own training school for this high destiny. 
Playing in joyous freedom and without purpose, save 
to gratify their in-born desire of seeing, hearing, and 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 19 

doing, they have tasked every faculty, stimulated a 
growth of brain and muscle, gained the use of eye, 
ear, hand, foot, and tongue, gained a knowledge of 
cause and eflfect preparatory to improving himself and 
remodeling the world. 

Let the stoic say if he pleases that he eats to live. 
Most people, forgetful of the good of living, eat to 
gratify the appetite. But nature hides her end under 
the pleasure of the palate, and the food supports life 
and growth all the same ; even more. Think of the 
disasterous results of people only eating from consid- 
erations of duty. 

In like manner it is the joyous play-school, that so 
sweetly beguiles away the long years of childhood, and 
under the disguise of fun and frolic, schools, trains and 
lays the foundation of human greatness and human 
destiny. 

Prolonged training has always preceded great achieve- 
ments and grand destinies. The name of Moses will 
ever be great in history, and the civilization he gave 
the world will last like the sun in the sky, and be a 
light to all ages. Eighty years was he in being trained 
for forty years work. Forty year's in the Court of 
Pharaoh, he was educated in the worldly side of his 
mission, and forty years alone with God, in the Midian 
desert, he was being trained in the divine side. From 
this school he went out to promulgate the greatest 
divine-human civilization the world had to that date 
ever seen. 

One-fourth of the average life is spent in childhood ; 
one-third in adolescence ; and did human beings hurry 



20 CHILD - PLAY, OR 



on to maturity like brute beings, human life would be 
of no more significance than brute life. 

It is time and practice that make perfect. A young 
artist complained that it was unfair for his master to 
receive for thirty days work as much as he received for 
a whole year. To this the trained expert replied, "You 
mistake, sir ; I worked thirty years that I might be 
able to do this work in thirty days." 

Beast, bird, and plant life hurry on to maturity, and 
each will be a duplicate of its parent, no more, no less. 
From the egg will be known to a certainty what the 
feather and song of the bird will be. From the seed it 
can be foretold what the leaf and fruit of the plant will be. 
But the child is passive, plastic, mouldable, and will be 
what education makes him. He can be taught to 
speak any language, worship at any altar, conform to 
any civilization or labor at any craft ; and a large por- 
tion of the education which equips him for life's work 
is involuntary, unsought, and unconsciously obtained 
in the play-school. But it is none the less the activity 
of the child which culminates in the achievements of 
the man. 

The eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains is so 
gradual that the traveler is half-way to the summit 
before he is conscious of any unusual elevation. 

In like manner, the child is half-way up the hill of 
science before he realizes that there is such a hill. All 
his play was so spontaneous and full of present gratifi- 
cation, so much like doing for the sake of doing, that 
the youngster never dreamed of being at school, till 
the lessons of life were half learned. Playing amidst 



SELF- KDUCATION THROUiill ]»LAV. 21 

trees and plants, he became a botanist, and learned the 
names of plants and fruits; playing with animals, he 
took his first lesson in zoology, and learned the name 
of beast and birds, and became familiar with their 
habits. His rambles among rocks and rills gave him 
many lessons in geology. He had also learned some- 
thing of language in this play-school; something of 
history, mathematics, optics, and acoustics, more than 
he will ever learn again in the same number of years. 
Playing planting and building, he had gotten a start as 
farmer and carpenter; at church and in society he had 
learned the first principles of religion and morality. 
And all this was achieved so spontaneously, so joyfully, 
and so healthfully, that not a thought of responsibility 
or a fear of being unable to pass at the final examina- 
tion had ever entered the mind of the little busy body. 

Here is one quarterly report written and read in the 
life of the child. Each day he worked until he was 
weary only to sleep and renew his efibrts with increased 
skill on the morrow. Not one day had been lost. Not 
one hour misspent. The grade is a good one. It is 
read in increased appetite, healthy blood and rosy 
cheeks. 

The advancement is delightful ; it is reported in 
strong and sturdy limbs, genial temper, increasing wis- 
dom and stature. 

The promotion is sure ; from happy infancy, through 
healthful childhood to vigorous manhood. 

God bless the play-school. 



CHAPTKR II. 



Play, the Natural Occupation of Children. 

" Coming as students of moral powers to the study of childhood, 
what wonderful facts open up before us? Steam was as mighty 
as now before James Watt heard in his mother's tea-kettle the 
puff of coming engines and the rattle of coming machinery; but 
it was an undiscovered, unused power, wasting its giant strength 
in the air. The unemployed steam power of the moral world is 
childhood, its restless activity, its puerile sports, its words and 
sympathies."— W. F. Craft. 

fpIFE is activity. Inactivity is death. In every 
form of animated existence, the health and 
growth of the body is conditioned on a full and free 
activity peculiar to the habits and character of the 
individual. Neither insect, nor beast, nor bird can 
escape this law ; and play is the spontaneous and invol- 
untary exercise that the physical well-being of all 
young life needs. It is the indispensable necessity of 
all young life ; consequently the young of all living 
beings play. 

Young fish play. As soon as escaped from the spawn 
they begin a series of instinctive activity for activity's 
sake, playing and applying their powers of locomotion. 

Young birds play. When their conditions of com- 
fort have been met, the parent goes out into quiet 
repose. Then the brood commence a career of bird 
antics, running, picking and flopping their wings in 
vaulting flights. There is no other name for this spon- 

(23) 



24 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



taneous and preliminary practice of the members of 
the body but bird's play. 

Animals play; colts, calves, pigs, puppies, kittens. 
The puppy or kitten is often seen whirling itself dizzy, 
toying with its own tail, when no better sport can 
be had. 

Wild animals, the lion, tiger, bear, wolf, fox, are no 
less playful than the domestic animals. 

Insects play ; the bee, the fly, the gnat, are often seen 
collected in sunny places performing their sportive 
gyrations as if waltzing to the music of their own 
wings. Apply the microscope to a drop of stagnant 
water, and it reveals a group of darting, whirling, cir- 
culating animalculae, suggestive of all kinds of games 
played at once. 

Every healthful child is a playful child. As soon as 
he can coo and kick and thump, he begins a series of 
physical demonstrations. As the mind unfolds, and he 
gets fuller possession of his powers, the play grows 
more diversified with his growth until of all that romps 
and sports the child is the most playful. The history 
of childhood has but one chapter, and that chapter is 
play. In all times and in all lands play is the natural 
and necessary occupation of childhood. 

Dr. Kane observed the Esquimaux children playing 
ball on the frost and snow-covered fields of the Arctic 
North. 

Travelers in China describe the crowded population 
of adults as apathetic, inert and lacking in vivacity. 
But the little Chinese boys and girls are everywhere 
going through their antics. They are eagerly investi- 



SELF- EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 25 

gating every place and everything, and playing make- 
believe imitations of the ways and pursuits of older 
people. 

Antiquarians have given a detailed account of the 
juvenile sports of the Greek and Roman children. In 
these far-oflf times and lands as now, when a group of 
children were released from in-door restraint with or 
without putting their hands on the yard fence they 
would leap the wall in preference to going through the 
gate. On the play grounds, during all these historic 
ages, it has been an exhibition over and over again 
of the games so familiar to our times. 

Mahaflfy says, " We can have a very distinct idea of 
the sort of amusement popular among Greek children." 
And enumerates hopping on one foot, somersaults, 
throwing stones at marks, peg splitting, games at ball, 
played very much as to-day, hide-and-seek, blind-man's- 
buff, rythmatic songs, and playing all-around-the-ring, 
marbles, and spinning tops. 

The Greek children did not have heads and points, 
but they had its equivalent. By throwing up a shell 
painted black on one side and bright on the other they 
played " Sun and Rain." A large beetle found in the 
Grecian Islands afforded an excellent substitute for a 
kite. Tying a string and sometimes a lighted taper to 
this large-winged insect, it was fine sport to guide its 
course while flying — we mean fine sport for the boys. 
We cannot think of children without thinking of them 
being engaged in play. If we think of them in that 
unknown antiquity from which our antiquity copied 
and borrowed, we think, of them as playing children. 



26 CHILD -ri.AY, OR 



If we think of them in some future age, when the im- 
perfect pursuits and amusements of the past shall have 
all disappeared to make room for a perfect future we 
still think of them as playing children. In all ages, 
the Iron Age, the Silver Age, and the Golden Age, the 
idea of children and play are inseparable. The Bible 
prophet describes the coming millennium, "And the 
streets shall be full of boys and girls playing in the 
streets ; " and very old men and women seated in the 
doors happy as on-lookers. This juvenile sport that 
has engaged the attention of so many millions of chil- 
dren as wide and as enduring as the human race, cer- 
tainly has a meaning as deep as the human soul. In 
the light of these facts, remembering that an All-wise 
Creator made the world, we are forced to the conclusion 
that play is the child's necessity and meets a deep- 
seated want of human nature. 

To many children the play period has been made a 
bitter-sweet, more bitter and less sweet because play's 
place in nature has not been understood. The sportive 
activity of neglected children has been permitted to 
grow wild, and then cruelly suppressed. The rod com- 
ing down in the midst of their romp and riot, sweet 
play and bitter tears were strangely commingled. But 
in this case prohibition failed to prohibit. 

A plucky little fellow, six years old, full of pent-up 
tears, gave vent to an occasional sob. Being asked 
why he sobbed, he said, "A feller sobs when he don't 
want to cry, and it bursts out.'' Children's thoughts, 
emotions, and actions all exist in fusion, and if denied 
expression in one form, will voice themselves in 



SKI.F - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 27 

another. The sorrow that is denied expression in cry- 
ing, voices itself in sighs and sobs. Nature has filled 
children full to overflowing with play. This play is the 
natural expression of the emotion, thought and energy 
of the child and will find vent in some form ; in spite 
of coercion and prohibition, it will burst! out afresh ; 
and if the effort to restrain is unwise and unreason- 
able, this playful propensity will often assert itself in 
some grotesque way. 

The antics of a breezy little fellow had exhausted 
the patience of his nervous mother, and she com- 
manded, "James, stop that noise, and sit down quietly 
for the next hour or I will punish you." 

" Mother," said he, " I cannot keep still. I'd burst 
open, I know I would, if I could not run and laugh and 
get the noise out of me." 

A sweet, elfin little girl, trying hard to keep quiet 
during a long and loud sermon, whispered, " Ma, I wish 
I were a preacher, so that I could jump and hollow on 
Sunday." 

Those busy little idlers have been fearfully misunder- 
stood. The playing child is the true child. Play is 
the child's natural activity of the body and mind. It 
is the essential beginning of life's active work. It is 
indispensable to the healthy development of every 
faculty of the mind and body. Children should be 
helped to play, not hindered. They should be assisted 
and guided in this natural activity and provided with 
play-things fitted to make play an education, a develop- 
ment, but never repressed. Everywhere about us child- 
hood has been stifled and crushed ; not from any desire 



28 CHILD -PLAY, OK 



to do SO, but from ignorance of the true significance of 
of play. And more. The injury suffered by the child 
has brought ruin and disaster to after-life when prop- 
erly guided play would have grown into habits of 
industry, order, regularity and morality. 

The study of man is man ; but to complete the study 
it should begin at the beginning. This first chapter in 
the life of the human being has been strangely neg- 
lected. It seems to have been taken for granted that 
there is nothing in child life worthy of study. Strange 
to relate, we have no science of childhood, no infantile 
psychology. 

The geologist in passing a clifi" of rocks observes 
critically every fossilized plant or shell and tries to dis- 
cover the process by which it started into being. The 
botanist with science in mind and glass in hand studies 
the germinating seed and formulates into scientific 
language, the process by which the seed begins to 
be a tree. 

The entomologist traces the life of the insect through 
all the diSerent stages of development, from the egg to 
the winged and painted butterfly or beetle. 

But who with equal care has studied the words and 
ways of every group of children, seen by fireside and 
wayside, in search of the secret spring which sets going 
the infantile mind and tongue? 

Children, too, are scientific specimens. To know the 
human mind in its matured operations, we must study 
the beginning of mental activity. How does the mind 
get started? How does the child begin to think, 
remember, speak, reason, and express his likes and dis- 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 29 

likes? The libraries of the world are flooded with 
books pertaining to mental science; but all these 
psychologies are for the adult mind in active operation. 
We have no science of the infantile mind. 

Outside the kindergarten circle, the early playful 
activity of children has received little serious attention. 
When the old philosophers encountered a thing, the 
use of which they did not understand, they explained 
its existence on the general principle " Nature abhors 
a vacuum." Every space and place must be filled with 
something. And things that had no other use justified 
their existence because they were good filling for those 
vacant places in nature. The lack of appreciation of 
1 childish play would indicate that childhood is one of 
\ those abhorred vacuums in nature which must be filled 
with something, and that something, is play. Random 
play. Busy idleness. Childish pastime. Childish 
waste-time, lost-time. And like those interspaces in 
nature before the days of science, every one was at 
liberty to fill out this waste-time in human life as 
interest or inclination suggested. 

As we learn from the records of no distant past, at 
one time earth was thought to be an extended plain, 
and the sun rose and set from the great unknown. The 
West, all ablaze with the last lingering rays of the sua, 
touched the heart and enkindled the fancy of every 
observer ; and each one had his own conception of this 
brilliant display. One with poetic taste pictured the 
twilight sky as the garden of Hesperides. The even- 
ing stars and sun-lit clouds were golden apples. The 
darkness was a great dragon which guarded them. 



30 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



The innocent child that sees everything and calls 
everything by some beautiful name, said *' It was the 
sun going to sleep, and he covered himself with a 
beautiful bed-kilt." 

The monk, mistaking asceticism for piety and dis- 
trusting everything which afforded beauty or pleasure, 
saw in this same radiant evening sky the reflection of 
the lurid flames of hell, and shuddered, prayed, and 
crossed himself at the sight. 

Childish play, with its endless antics, entertaining 
games and joyful interest in small things, like the 
setting sun, has attracted the attention of every one. 
But to most people this free, abounding, joyful play is 
a beautiful, unexplained phenomenon. 

Interviewing many fathers, mothers, and teachers 
with these and like questions : Why do children play ? 
What relation has play to the child's after life? Does 
play have any effect on the present or ftitiire mental or 
moral condition of the child? 

Some answered : " It is a subject that I never thought 
of and have no answer to give." 

One thought the ceaseless activity of young life a 
cheap and innocent amusement, and said, " Let the 
little silly things have a good time while they can. 
Ignorance is bliss." 

A fat, benevolent old lady thought, " It seemed good 
in the Creator to make children so happy with play 
while they were growing big enough to be good for 
something." 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 



31 



A churchman with severe theology, thought those 
busy hands, feet and tongues all set going by blind 
impulse, rather than by reason, was clear proof of orig- 
inal sin, and children must be curbed and kept down 
with rigid restraint, till they were old enough to be 
regenerated and begin life aright. Others of business 
habits and methodical education thought children's 
play a random doing and undoing, a waste of time, and 
the sooner that old heads were put on young shoulders 
the better. Not a few with economical ideas, who 
esteemed bread winning and money making the chief 
end of both man and child, could see nothing in play 
but busy idleness. 

Some thought there was no worthy explanation or 
apology, especially for that boy. At home it was rip, 
tear, slam, bang, jumble, tumble. His malignant mis- 
chief and screeching noise made him the terror of the 
neighborhood. At school his idea of improvement 
was to throw a paper ball straight to the mark without 
observation ; to turn a somersault without putting his 
head on the ground ; to stand on his head without put- 
ting his foot against a tree and to whip the teacher. 
As to being a man, his ideal was almost realized. He 
could smoke a half of a cigar and use profane language. 
Everybody says, " He will amount to nothing in this or 
any other world." Why? The world itself was at 
first a chaotic world. Out of this jumbled-up mass of 
indistinguishable darkness and disorder rose a beau- 
tiful and habitable world, completely green ; a Garden 
of Eden. 



82 CHILD -PI.AY, OR 



"Only a boy, with his noise and fun, 
The veriest mystery under the sun ; 
As brimful of mischief, wit and glee, 
As ever a human frame can be, 
And as hard to manage as — what — ah, me, 
'Tis hard to tell." 

"Only a boy, who may be a man, 
If nature goes on with her first plan ; 
If intemperance or some fatal snare, 
Conspire not to rob us of this our heir ; 
Our blessing, our trouble, our rest, our care ; 
Our torment, our joy ; 
Only a boy." 

That boy. He cannot be driven. He cannot be reg- 
ulated by coercion or reconstruction. 

The Roman inquisition commanded Galileo to stop 
the revolving earth from spinning through space around 
the sun. The persecuted astronomer only had courage 
to whisper " But it does move." And it does move, 
and the spring and summer attending each annual 
revolution will make field and forest burst forth with 
life of some kind, either wild weed or wild wood; the 
golden grain, the pear, the peach, the rose, the lily. 
The way to keep down the weed and briar, is to plant 
and cultivate the growth that is good for food and 
pleasing to the eye. Captain January said " Three 
things are necessary to raise a child, the help of God, a 
cow, and common sense." Common sense forces us to 
the conclusion that this irrepressable desire to romp 



SELF- KDUOATION THROUGH PLAV. 33 

and play has some deep meaning and supplies some 
great natural want, and it is so necessary for the sym- 
metrical development of juvenile life that there can be 
no substitute for it. There is no compensation or 
diversion that will lead young life to forget it. It is an 
in-born, spontaneous exercise that children need as 
much as they need light, air and food. Play is instinc- 
tively craved by the child as a necessity and a God- 
given want of the young life. 

An only child, a little boy not accustomed to much 
company, went visiting with his mother where there 
was plenty of companionship of his own age. The 
starved little fellow found the romp, frolic and tumble 
over the grassy lawn so exhilarating and life-giving 
that his last retiring words each night were " Ma, be 
sure and wake me early to-morrow morning, I want to 
play all day as long as I stay." 

A little seven-year old son of wealthy parents, was 
dressed, petted and restrained from the go-as-you-please 
amusements so dear to children. Pale and feeble as he 
was, he felt his privations keenly. He wanted to be 
able to run, climb and wade brooks like other children ; 
and he seemed to realize that his dress which, too 
dainty to touch the earth, too pretty to be ruflfled and 
spoiled, was in some way responsible for his puny con- 
dition. One day he said to a sympathizing friend " I 
do wish pa would get so poor that he wouldn't be able 
to buy me shoes. Then I could go bare-footed like 
other children." 

The child's sport and play needs guidance and stim- 
ulus, but repression or restraint cannot fail to be detri- 



34 CHILD - PLAY 



mental. No power can hinder these little ones from 
being what they are. They are a perpetual motion and 
can only be stilled by death. Help them to places 
where they can act with understanding. By education, 
convert their play into the means of physical, mental, 
and moral culture. 



CHAPTER III. 



Childhood's Play the Germ of Manhood's Ways and 

Works. 

" The power that has scarcely germinated iu the boy's mind is 
seen by him in the legend or tale, a perfect plant, filled with the 
most delicious blossoms and fruit. The very remoteness of the 
conception fitting into his own vague hopes expands the heart 
and soul, strengthens the mind and unfolds in freedom and 
power."— Froebel. 

^^N old Iranian legend tells of a spring of unusual 
Jj^ promise in the far oflf land of Persia. 

That spring the earth rose completely green. Vernal 
bloom and beauty adorned the field and forest, and all 
nature was a garden of delight. The orchards were 
arrayed in surpassing loveliness, and grapes, apricots 
and peaches gave signs of an overflowing crop. The 
rose bushes, grown to the size of trees, never blossomed 
more luxuriantly. Everywhere the green, the pink, the 
white and crimson seemed to rival each other in deli- 
cacy of tint and hue. The air was laden with sweetest 
perfume and the melody of bees, birds, winds and waters 
filled the air ; never was there a promise of so great a 
harvest. When autumn had come and crowned the 
year with inexhaustible abundance, men and beasts 
would feel themselves immortal ; envy, disease and 

death would cease from the earth. 

(35) 



36 CHILD - PLAY, OR 



The grateful people, anticipating the time when buds 
and bloom would grow and ripen into delicious fruit, 
plucked the flowers of spring as the holiest offering they 
could place on the altars of Ahura Mazda, the wise- 
minded God. Young men and young women wove 
bouquets of flowers plucked from tree and vine and 
gave to those dearest to them as the truest and purest 
token of affection. 

But this surpassing loveliness was only temporary. 
The promise of inexhaustible abundance was never 
realized. Anra Mainyus, the evil-minded one, full of 
death and opposition, fell from the sky in the form of a 
great serpent with six heads, six forked tongues and six 
death-bearing stings. This Dragon's breath poisoned 
all nature. The air became cold, cold as to the trees, 
cold as to the earth. A death-bearing frost fell upon 
the valleys and much outspreading snow covered the 
mountains. Before the vehement, deadly frost arose, in 
the low lands there were billowy waves of bloom and 
surpassing loveliness ; after it there were blackened 
stems and withering leaves. Before the frost arose on 
the mountain there was much pasture ; after it melting 
snows. 

This spring of promise was followed by an autumn 
of famine. Hunger created discontent and malice. 
The little children grew lean, dark-complexioned and 
died of want. The men grew vicious and went to war, 
some killing and robbing others, that they might escape 
death themselves. 

What this legend meant to the ancient fire worship- 
ers, never mind ; to us it is a parable pointing to our 
story. 



SELF - KDUCATION THKOlKiH PLAY. 37 



The influence affecting the character and destiny of 
man begins in the nursery. From bud to maturity both 
plant and human life, blossom out according to fixed 
laws. God has made child-life a spring time of bloom 
and beauty, of play and joy. Play is to the career of 
after life what the bloom of spring is to the ripe fruit of 
summer. Injure the bloom and the fruit will suffer 
injury both in quantity and quality. Kill the bloom of 
spring and the autumnal fields will be barren ; unwisely 
repress or restrain the play of the child and the result 
will be a starved, crippled, agonized man or woman. 
/ Kill the play of the child and it will probably kill all that 
is worth living for in adult life. This play period that 
has been set aside as the unproductive period in human 
life is in reality the most fundamental, important and 
productive. Play, the natural occupation of children, 
is the natural and necessary beginning of active life. 
As the fruit is in the bud, as the oak is in the acorn, so 
the man is m the child, and the end of man's career is 
in the beginning of the child's activity. Play is the 
bud and bloom of human life and grows into all the 
diversified conditions, pursuits and attainments of which 
human beings are capable. Play is a natural and nec- 
essary activity. But it is more than this, it is a self- 
directing activity. It is an in-born impulse that leads 
to the development of character and the industrial pur- 
suits upon which human life and comfort depend. In 
fact all life is self-guided and acts in the direction of its 
own complete development and well-being. Growing 
plants reach sykward for the vitalizing effect of the sun 
beam; the young birds beat the air with unfledged 



38 CHILD - PLAY, OR 



wings, at once a prophecy and preparation for its aerial 
flight ; the amphibious animals — the duck, the turtle, 
the seal, born on land, instinctively direct their earliest 
effort toward the water. Man was made to be master 
of the world, and the world acknowledges his dominion 
and responds to his touch. He commands, and the 
fields yield him their harvest. He puts his hand on the 
wood, the stone and the clay and transforms them into 
walls and roofs which shelter him from the storm. He 
applies his mind to the study of nature, and the elements 
yield to his will and reveal to him the truths of science. 
He is born master, and the world is created his 
servant. This mastership of the world is ingrained in 
human nature and stamped on man's vital energy and 
expressed in his every act from the cradle to the grave. 
Born to the necessity of self-improvement and the 
transformation of the world, children instinctively 
begin their active career by playing, handling, produc- 
ing and transforming. Young animals are frolicsome 
things, but they play merely for physical growth and 
for developing their peculiar modes of life. Animal 
activity never employs the use of tools; consequently 
the playful beasts of the field need no playthings. The 
child born to creative industry, his first deeds are an 
indication of what the human career will be, and point 
out the direction human enterprise will take. The 
child begins his activity by producing and creating, and 
while yet in the cradle he wants toys to stimulate and 
set going his inventive and creative instinct. Finished, 
artistic toys have no special attraction for the child. 
Some chance-found article that he can break or pick to 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAV. 3i» 



pieces in the exercise of his investigative disposition — 
sticks, clay, sand, things which can be constructed into 
a thousand different forms, are the playthings which 
please the child's fancy ; anything on which he can ex- 
ercise his creative genius by breaking or making it in 
some new form. 

A little fellow incidentally hearing the remark, " A 
horse is not much use till he is broke," thought to im- 
prove his hobby-horse by breaking the rockers off. 

A kind-hearted little girl wanted a rag to tie up her 
papa's wounded feelings. These efforts at constructive- 
ness are crude ; but the trained observer can see in 
them the incipient horse-trainer and hospital nurse. 

Labor is activity kept under strict control for the 
accomplishment of definite results. Of the one thou- 
sand and five hundred persons operating a Connecticut 
pin factory, some are assigned the task of digging 
copper from the Lake Superior mines ; others are em- 
ployed to smelt the ore and ship the metal to head- 
quarters. Alloying the copper with one-third zinc and 
converting it into brass is the assigned duty of another 
class ; another set of workmen are operating machines 
which roll and draw the metal into wire ; again others 
are running cunning little machines, which, by one 
process, heads, points, polishes and finishes the pin ; 
others supply the pins and paper to a handy contrivance 
which musters them like bayoneted soldiers into rank 
and file, companies and platoons, ready to charge upon 
the ladies' toilet, where forty tons of pins fall each week 
in the battle of life and fashion. 



40 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



Of these fifteen hundred workmen, each man, woman 
and child had his or her appointed work, knew and kept 
the appointed place, had a prescribed task, labored to 
accomplish definite results, was kept under watchful 
control and held to the strictest accountability. But 
that group of fickle children are for a minute all ab- 
sorbed in a game of heads and points. The next minute 
a thoughtless little fellow, seeking fun without counting 
the cost, puts a pin in the other boy's chair, heads down 
and points up. Then comes a settlement ; and in five 
minutes they are all friends again, and the winner trades 
the whole stock of pins for two nails, three buttons, a 
shoe string and a marble the other boy had in his 
pocket. In all this there was no account kept of the 
business, no thought of profit or loss and no concern 
about their conduct. 

Play is the spontaneous beginning of activity, and 
has no conscious end or aim. It keeps itself free from 
premeditated control, creates or destroys, makes or 
breaks, continues or desists in obedience to blind im- 
pulse. Play is a law to itself. It prescribes for itself. 
It is its own end and aim. It produces whatever fancy 
dictates, and never becomes a task. They don't have 
to ; they play because they want to. It is a doing for 
the sake of doing ; a joyful expression of exuberant, 
fresh young life. An unbounded, instinctive activity ; 
an exhibition of spontaneous energy. A hoop, a top, a 
stick, a stone, pins with heads or points, anything and 
everything becomes an object of interest to the child 
and calls into activity his whole being. Play is the nat- 
ural activity of the child, and anything may be con- 
verted into a plaything. 



SELF- EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 41 



But this aimless play is paradoxical ; without end or 
aim in view, it has the most wise and worthy end, and 
play is absolutely necessary to that end. The sportive, 
restless child is prompted to activity by a blind impulse 
but nature with open eyes and a predetermined purpose 
is leading this playful fun and frolic to the most benefi- 
cent and far-reaching results. 

Play has a grand meaning. It is the bud and bloom 
of young life, and unfolds into all the diversified indus- 
tries and interests of mankind. 

The happiness of the child is in the play. Deny the 
child the free exercise of his inalienable right to play, 
and you will not only blight the enjoyment of childhood, 
but the disastrous result would afiect all the coming 
years of his life. What if our children would practice 
the everlasting gospel of "don't," which some par- 
ents are constantly ding-donging into their ears, 
and the demure little folks would sit silently or walk 
about quietly and thoughtfully, waiting to grow big 
enough, old enough and wise enough to be good for 
something ? Could a fond mother point with pride to 
her boy and say, "John doesn't fidget or wriggle, he 
doesn't wrestle or scufile with other boys and tear his 
clothes, he doesn't wade into the water or roll in the 
dust and soil them, he doesn't forget what I tell him 
and run away from home without leave, he doesn't dis- 
obey my commands and tease the cat or tie kettles to 
the dog's tail, he doesn't worry the lambs and calves by 
working them to his sled, he doesn't forget my orders 
and climb trees, he doesn't tease me for a gun or horn 
or contradict my word, he doesn't care much for toys of 



42 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



any kind. The other boys call him a stupid little ninny 
or nickname him * Johnny Don't ;' but he is so correct 
and obedient." Would John be the most interesting, 
pleasing and promising type of childhood ? Would 
such waiting and wishing to be wise in childhood be 
regarded as an omen of unusual wisdom in mannood ? 
A most solemn looking mule when out of the traces 
was no sooner in harness than he perseveringly culti- 
vated the habit of kicking the end-gate out of the wagon. 
It was a very frisky colt which grew into " Tom," the 
dear, trusty old family horse. The best boys get the 
fidgets, grow riotous, tear their clothes and break things. 
But the mishaps and accidents are not the only things 
which grow out of this impulsive play. 

The health and symmetrical growth of the boy is in 
the play. Deprive the child of his play and you will 
injure his health and stunt his growth. The body 
grows by its own activity. 

The mental development of the child is in the play. 
Deprive the child of the advantages of play and you 
will dwarf and cripple his mental growth. The mind 
grows by its own activity. 

The character of the child is in the play. Amiable 
and innocent play will produce a refined and happy dis- 
position ; rude and rough play will grow into rude and 
vicious manners and habits. The child's habits and 
character grow — grow in the direction in which they 
are exercised. 

The social, moral and religious life of the child is in 
the play. Virtue kindles at the touch of happiness. 
Restrain and repress the free enjoyment of social play 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 43 

and you will produce a cold, unsocial, melancholy, and 
perhaps a cruel disposition. 

The pleasing manners, genial temper and courtesies 
of life are in the play. Make children unhappy by aus- 
tere and unreasonable restraints and the ^foundation is 
laid for a peevish, suspicious and unobliging disposition. 
Later in life they will give back to the world the same 
intolerance their parents gave to them. 

The artistic skill and mechanical genius of the child 
is in the play. There is nothing that delights children 
more than playing at drawing, building and contriving. 
The breaking period naturally grows into the making 
period. What children play at when young is more 
easily and skillfully practiced when they are older. The 
playful propensities promote the growth and develop- 
ment of the senses and bodily organs and add skill and 
dexterity to the fingers. The child through his own 
activity is trained in the easiest and most delightful 
way to be master of his powers. The play of the child 
grows into the craft of the man. 

The imagination and ideality of the child is in the 
play. 

The child's devotion to rude and outlandish toys has 
been a surprise to us all. Older people look with 
disgust on the stupid little thing's want of taste and dis- 
crimination. We have seen a bright, breezy little girl 
pouring out all the affections of her pure, sweet soul 
upon a dirty, banged, battered and hairless doll with 
raveled mouth, broken nose, the stuffing leaking out of 
one leg and the other off at the knee. And yet in the 
estimation of the child a halo of glory encircled that 



44 CHILD -PLA.Y, OR 



ragged and detestable fragment of what, in its best days, 
had only been a horrid darkey doll. She would not 
have exchanged it for a new, artistic, talking, crying 
and sleeping doll, and taken the world to boot. Another 
was giving all the wealth of her afifection to a forked 
radish, with a tuft of leaves suggestive of a head of 
hair and a rag wrapped around it. 

Grown-up folks have stood aghast at the misplaced 
affection of the little idiot. But is it certain we have 
correctly interpreted the child ? With a more critical 
knowledge of the way " the young idea shoots," it yet 
may he discovered that it was the grown-up folks who 
were the mistaken. 

The child does not want something complex to study, 
some production of genius to admire. He prefers some 
rude, imperfect contrivance to the more artistic and 
exact resemblance. 

This strange preference for the unartistic is all ex- 
plained when we come to understand what toys signify 
to the child. He does not depend upon brilliance of 
color, exquisite proportions and fine finish as conditions 
of admiration. He is not pouring out the infantile 
fountains of affections and admiration on that crude 
toy. But it is his own ideal which he sees ; and that 
toy is to him the rod in the hands of Moses which breaks 
up the fountain of memory, imagination and ideality. 

A stool turned over is in imagination a boat in which 
the boy navigates imaginary seas and rivers. The stool 
set up on its legs immediately becomes an imaginary 
horse, and mounting it, away he gallows to a neighbor's 
house or to New York City. Where he rides all depends 



SEIiF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 45 

on the child's fancy, for the road, the distance and the 
fare is all the same, whether his destination happens to 
be the nearest neighbor or some remote city. A band- 
box or a chair turned over, with the aid of imagination, 
will answer for the neighbor's house or just as well for 
New York or Boston. While he rides his hobby in 
imagination, he feels himself mounted on a real, large 
horse. When the little girl caresses the doll, in imag- 
ination, she sees and feels herself embracing some real 
living object of aflfection. We have wondered and 
looked down on the stupid little folks because we were 
too stupid ourselves to understand the amazing myster- 
ies of the budding mind. 

The child has a divinely creative mind and soul, 
stirring his inner life. It is what the child ought to be, 
and will be which is beating beneath what he is now. 
He is the true poet, acting his own creations. He is a 
day dreamer, dramatizing his own dreams. Playthings 
are the trellis and play is the germinating mind, climb- 
ing up the trellis to bud and bloom. The child is a 
little romancer, and toys when draped with his own 
imagination are characters figuring in his romance. 
The literalist may see the real presence in the bread 
and wine, but to the child they are symbols, suggestions 
on which he hangs his imagination. If it is doubted 
whether he sees beyond the real into the realms of 
fancy, ask him his explanation of the phenomena of 
nature, and the little allegorizer at once sets himself to 
describe inanimate things in words, customs, emotions 
and passions borrowed from his own inner life. 

Such are the verbatim answers of children when asked 



46 CHILD - PLAY, OB 



their ideas of the course of nature. The setting "sun 
has gone to bed, and in the morning when he gets up 
he will want bread and butter and a cup of tea." It is 
evident that the child was imputing his own experience 
to the sun. " It is naughty fire " because it burns some- 
body; "Poor wood" because it was consumed in the 
fire. When the stars were veiled by clouds " God took 
them up into heaven;" "The moon is following us 
about because papa forgot to bring his lamp," and when 
it suddenly shone out from behind a cloud, it is " God 
lighting the gas." In all these examples the child sees 
not the real thing but its own ideality. 

Toys in like manner enkindle the imagination, 
awaken memory and aid the fancy, and the more remote 
resemblance is preferred to the more accurate and 
artistic likeness, because it gives more freedom to fancy 
and a broader range to imagination. What the child 
wants is not the exact likeness, but they think by sym- 
bols, such as outlines and hints afiford. If you would 
understand the germinating mind, study it in the light 
of the budding and blooming plant rather than in the 
light of the artificial methods and habits of older people. 
The fruit is in the bud. Miss Blow hit the mark when 
she said, " The play world has its trades and professions, 
its varied round of work and its circles of pleasures. 
Here a miniature Barnum exhibits his menagerie of 
wild beasts ; yonder is a theater where, on the stage, a 
coquettish Cinderella tries on her diminutive slipper, or 
a sleeping beauty is awakened by a fairy prince. Now 
we come to a church where a six-year old Spurgeon 
thunders wrath against evil-doers ; then we enter a hos- 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 47 

pital where child doctors are examining the pulse and 
taking the temperature of their dolls with button hooks, 
while little white-capped nurses watch by their bedside 
and administer medicine or nourishment with great 
solicitude." The play business world also has fields 
and farms where six-year old farmers plant seeds and 
gather harvests. It also has its State Department, 
where six-year old senators and congressmen plan polit- 
ical campaigns, and where puerile generals fight bloody 
battles and bring about great revolutions. All the 
diversified industrial world of grown up people is bud- 
ding and blooming in the child's play world. 

It is a fact, and whether it is the child taking the 
world into his own life and understanding, or the world 
being born anew from each child heart, it matters not. 
One thing is certain, the child's play world is so related 
to the business world of men and women, that the great 
working world of fashion, trade, farms and factories, 
churches and schools could never be reached by any 
other road than the one leading through the play world. 
The first revelation the child gets of his own powers 
and ability to contrive and produce is through play. 
In these play pursuits he first learns what he can do, 
what he can do easily and what skill can be gained by 
perseverance and repeated effort ; he learns the nature 
and quality of material, the magic of inventing and 
contriving. No; the puerile play is not the touch of 
the pendulum which swings back and forth just because 
something touched it and set it going. Nor is it merely 
the child's own distinctive element in which he lives, 
moves and has his being, but it is the infantile mind 



48 CHILD - PLAY 



pluming its wings for flying to the heights of matured 
affection and industry. 

The child is always outgrowing his playthings, ex- 
hausting their possibility to afford him amusement. 
The hobby horse, the doll and the pewter soldier are 
abandoned and the brush and box of paint, the harp or 
horn, the kite, the top, the bat and ball take their place. 
Something is wanted which demands more thought, 
something into which he can put more of his skill and 
creative genius. Play is the bloom of spring, and the 
world of adults is the ripe fruit of summer. First, the 
tender blade, then the green and forming ear, then the 
full corn in the ear. 

The Bible closes with a beautiful parable : It is life 
figured as a tree bearing twelve manner of fruit. 
Oriental fancy has enlarged this figure and painted it in 
more gorgeous colors. The outspreading branching 
tree of life buds, blooms and bears fruit of every kind 
needed to supply human want, to please human fancy 
or gratify human ambition. From its bending branches 
may be gathered bread, clothing, jewelry, houses, furni- 
ture, carpets, chariots, horses, books, everything of 
which human fancy can conceive. It will not desecrate 
this figure to suggest the child's play is the bloom that 
ripens into the diversified fruit of this wonderful tree. 



CHAPTKR IV. 



Rude Play the Result of Incomplete Brain Develop- 
ment. The Child will Outgrow it. 

" There comes the boys ! Oh dear, the noise, 
The whole house feels the racket — 
Behold the knee of Harry's pants 
And weep o'er Bertie's jacket ! 

Now what to do with these wild boys 

And all their din and clatter, 

Is really quite a grave affair, 

No laughing, trifling matter." — Selected. 

"The young resemble the remote ancestry, the adult the im- 
mediate ancestry." 

/IVNE bright July morning, when the grass was green- 
^^ est and the flowers sweetest, a gaily dressed but- 
terfly was seen flying lazily about. Her velvety wings 
were painted with a combination of black and red and 
decorated with bands and dots of yellow and green and 
gold ; a specimen of nature's coloring in beauty of ar- 
rangement and delicacy of touch, exceeding the finest 
specimen of human art. This pretty winged nymph 
hovering over the blooming plants paused for a moment 
at one and another to sip the nectar from the delicate 
little cup at the base of each flower. Finally meeting 
a companion, the two mounted high into the air with a 

49 



50 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



motion half flying and half floating on the breeze ; 
higher and higher they went, till fields and flowers and 
even trees were seen far beneath. There the disconso- 
late butterfly confided the story of her sorrow to her 
companion. It was this : 

In love with life and in admiration of her beauty, she 
indulged the fond hope of being the mother of a family 
of children — winged, painted and beautiful like herself. 
With the greatest of care she had selected their birth- 
place in a locality where they would enjoy every advan- 
tage. Underneath the leaf of the sweet-scented phlox 
she had built a silk-lined nest and deposited her eggs. 
The young butterflies awaking to life in this favored 
spot, their opening eyes would be greeted with scenes 
of inspiring beauty. The nectar which filled each 
dainty flower cup would supply food sweet to their taste 
and nourishing to life and growth. But alas, she was a 
disappointed and broken-hearted mother ! 

Her children were such imperfect, little creeping 
things. They had no painted wings — in fact they had 
no wings at all. They were only little, wriggling 
worms ; and that was not the worst of it. They were 
low and vicious in their appetites and manners. In- 
stead of aspiring upward to feed on the bright bloom 
of the sweet-scented phlox, they crawled downward 
and burrowed in the earth by day ; at night, when good 
children ought to be asleep, they would go out and eat 
greedily of the coarsest food. Neglecting the flowers, 
they devoured great quantities of weeds and grass and 
even the gardener's vegetables. In fact, the whole race 
of mankind was arrayed against them on account of 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 51 



their destructive propensity, and had given them the 
ugly nick-name of " cut-worms." But the other but- 
terfly, with worn and faded wings, seemingly much older, 
and certainly much wiser, said, " You stupid mother ! 
Don't you know you can't put old butterflies' wings on 
young caterpillars' shoulders." This silly young insect 
had forgotten the story of her own life. The ugly cat- 
erpillar requires time and growth to become winged 
and painted. 

In like manner children are rude in conduct because 
of their imperfect brain development. Mental, moral 
and social maturity ought not to be expected in ad- 
vance of physical maturity. The sins and follies pecul- 
iar to childhood find their explanation in unfinished 
bodily growth. The child must first wait for develop- 
ment of limbs, and then learn to walk by walking. He 
must wait for development of vocal organs, and then 
learn to talk by talking. He must wait for development 
of bone and muscle, and then learn to work by work- 
ing. He must wait for development of brain, and then 
learn to be intelligent, aflfectionate, truthful and refined 
by practicing these virtues. 

His total depravity consists in being born a small 
boy. His hands and feet are small, his brain is small, 
and smallest in the region of the intellectual faculties 
where he will one day be largest. The big side of the 
infant's brain is back of the ears. His knowledge and 
experience are small. Discretion in the chrysalis state 
is better called indiscretion. In short, he is in the 
chaotic state, without form and void. Getting his 
growth with the accompanying training will finish the 



52 CHILD - PLAY, OR 



work of creation, and make an orderly man of him, if 
some daring deed does not finish him first. 

But what there is of this unfinished specimen of 
humanity belongs to an earlier age. 

THE CHILD IS BORN A PREHISTORIC MAN. 

And in getting to be a modern man he has to pass 
through all the stages of development and civilization 
the human race has passed through. 

He begins to live and act in a paradise of innocent 
ignorance. Through his appetite for forbidden fruit 
and other forbidden things, he falls into a state of sin 
and mischief, and for a brief period leads the life of a 
genuine barbarian, wholly obedient to his impulses. 

Says Mr. Louis Robinson: "All young creatures 
tend to resemble the earlier types from which the race 
sprung more than the adults do." The game freaks of 
the small boy tell the story of some far away, wild 
ancestor ; but as he grows older he grows more con- 
formed to the morals and manners of later date. This 
is the universal law of life operating with all the cer- 
tainty of cause and eflfect. Every plant, insect and 
animal in infancy and age obey this law of evolution ; 
first living the life of some remote ancestor and then 
living their own life down to date. 

The cultivated apple was produced from the wild 
apple, but the advantages of culture do not appear in 
the young fruit. The bud is still bitter. In its growth 
it is first the crab, then the Pippin or the Bellflower. 
It is only as the apple approaches maturity that it rap- 
idly increases in size, takes on the scarlet and golden 
colors without, and the sweet juices and delicious meat 



SELF -EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 53 

within. Culture does not change the old foundation, 
it only builds a better life on it. The same holds with 
our domestic grass and grain. They were originally 
wild grass and wild grain improved in quality and quan- 
tity by human culture. But the result of culture does 
not appear in the tender blade. The great Teacher 
illustrated this in one of his parables. Tares were sup- 
posed to be growing in a certain wheat field, and one 
proposing to weed out these tares was answered, " Not 
now." At this early stage of growth wheat and tares 
both look alike. Being unable to distinguish between 
them, you would root up the wheat also. The harvest 
alone can reveal which is wheat and which is tares. 

The natural habits of each young animal and the 
manners of each young child, will in like manner tell 
the story of some far-away ancestor. 

The early playful activity of our domestic animals 
afibrd a striking illustration of the fact that every 
domestic animal is born a wild animal and has to be 
domesticated afresh. 

Our domestic animals were originally wild animals, 
tamed and subdued to the use of man. Under his fos- 
tering care they experienced great change in appear- 
ance and disposition. The wild mountain goat has 
been domesticated into the sheep, and its once coarse 
coat transformed into the fine-fibered fleece. Domesti- 
cation converted the wolf into the faithful house-dog. 
The wild ox and wild horse were tamed and taught to 
assist man in the labor of the field and on the journey. 
Under the influence of domestication, the wild fowls 
have given up their wild ways to accommodate them- 
selves to the new condition of the poultry-yard. 



54 CHILD - PLAY, OR 



The war-like animals, which in a state of nature 
spent their whole time in seeking food, in attack and 
defense, have under the hand of man been tamed and 
taught to serve their master with great affection and 
fidelity. But their individuality has not been changed. 
Being more protected and trained to milder habits, 
they show and even inherit a milder disposition. But 
the wild nature is still there ; and with a little provo- 
cation is ever ready to show itself, especially in the 
young. Nothing seems more innocent and affectionate 
than the petted house cat; nothing more fierce and 
vicious than her kitten grown up in some secluded spot 
unaccustomed to the sight of man. The venomous 
little creature can spit and strike and scratch equal to 
its country couisin, the panther. Every untamed kit- 
ten grows up a wild cat. Every untrained colt grows 
up a wild horse. The off-spring of the domestic cattle, 
horses and hogs, which have grown up on the thinly- 
peopled western plains, unused to contact with their 
owners, are scarely less vicious than the buffalo, the 
wild horse or hog that never knew domestication. 

Animals are not less playful than children ; and like 
children their play will be an expression of their natu- 
ral disposition. Consequently, the young of domestic 
animals do not play the habits acquired by domestica- 
tion. But the play of their young will indicate the 
character and habits of their ancestors in the wild state. 

In their wild condition, animals largely obtain their 
food by one species devouring another. Even the 
gentler herbiverous species had to dispute the field with 
their carniverous neighbors. Hence, in their native 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY, 55 

state, the life of beast and bird was a life of constant 
war-fare. They existed to devour and be devoured. 

Consequently the play of the young animal is sure to 
be a belligerent exercise of some kind. The young 
carniverous animals play a make-believe struggle for 
life or death ; and in this tussle, they mimic all their 
usual modes of attack and defense in the wild state. 
The feline species, the lion, the tiger, the leopard and 
the cat are a nimble, cunning and blood-thirsty family ; 
and it is noteworthy that they are all very playful 
when young, because much early practice is needed to 
develop their quick and dextrous mode of attack and 
defense in taking their prey. Observe two kittens 
engaged in their ceaseless fun and frolic. It is the 
same game over and over again with little variation. 
One seems to say to the other " You be rat and I will 
be cat." The one impersonating the rat moves away a 
short distance, the other playing cat approaches with a 
stealthy creep near enough to cover the distance with a 
single leap, and then with muffled teeth and claws, it 
springs upon its playfellow in mimic fury as if it 
would devour it alive ; one taking the attitude of furi- 
ous attack, the other of crafty defiance and defense. 
Give a kitten a ball and it will push it away, and repeat 
the same mode of attack and capture. The ball in this 
case answers for mouse, or bird. 

Puppies, pigs, colts, calves and lambs are all playful, 
and it is over and over again a make-believe imitation 
of their mode of warfare in a wild state. They play 
with such apparent rage that it seems that they would 
actually tear each other to pieces. The same is true of 



56 CHILD - PLAY, OR 



domestic fowls. Ducks and geese sporting in the 
water are often observed to give a cry of alarm as if an 
enemy was near ; and then the whole flock with the 
rapidity of a flash dive beneath the water and come to 
the surface with a longer or shorter flight. This is a 
playful exhibition of the habits of the wild goose or 
wild duck when alarmed by sudden danger. All young 
creatures tend to resemble the earlier type from which 
the race sprung more than the adults do. The young 
of our domestic beasts and birds are evidently born 
wild beasts and wild birds, and their play will express 
the timorous and ferocious disposition of their wild 
ancestors. Born wild each young beast has to be 
trained afresh to domestic habits. 

This scientific generalization of play reads natural 
history backward. The original untutored nature will 
be reflected in the play or natural activity of all young 
things. This is equally true of the natural activity of 
the child. 

If our ancestors were barbarians with lower organi- 
zation and rude tastes and habits, their children for 
many generations at least, if not forever, must pass 
through the same stage of development. They will be 
born with incomplete organizations and rude tastes, 
and growth and culture must do afresh for each child 
just what they have done for the race. 

To know just what to expect of the child we should 
investigate the early character and habits of the Anglo- 
Saxon race. It is an incontestable fact that they were 
rocked in a gory cradle. They were coarse, crafty and 
cruel men. During all these past centuries, human 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 57 



nature has preserved its identity. Every born child is 
rocked in the cradle of a common humanity. The 
eflfect of an ever advancing civilization, as inherited by 
their children, consists not in being better born than 
our fathers were, but in the possibility of growing 
better and profiting more by culture. But primitive 
human nature is still inborn in the modern child. 
Whatever of pacific virtue may be acquired by culture, 
we still carry about with us and ever ready to burst 
into a flame the smouldering, sinister, and ferocious 
instincts of our early ancestry. We get many glimpses 
of this repressed and restrained barbarism in adult life. 
The street brawl and the prize fight continue to have a 
baneful fascination. The numerous sale of revolvers, 
the interest taken in scenes of carnage, reveal the fact 
that blood-thirstiness is an underlying instinct of our 
nature. The child of the nineteenth-century father, in 
taste and manners, may be expected to begin life very 
much as the child of the pre-historic father. In fact 
the child of the cave dweller and the natural small boy 
from the country would at once join heart and hand to 
make a team. They both would have the same pro- 
pensity to steal apples and to break and destroy every 
breakable thing. Together they would go in ecstasy at 
the sight of squirrel, rabbit, or fish, and would find 
unspeakable pleasure in chasing butterflies and disem- 
boweling frogs and mice. They would relish fighting 
and after the battle they would compare scratches and 
boast of their wounds. Their idea of obedience would 
be to do the very thing they were told not to do. 
These rude proclivities would be so strong that warn- 



58 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



ing and punishment would fail to correct their habits. 
In five minutes after being whipped they would repeat 
the same oflfence again. 

Herbert Spencer finds the explanation of the lawless 
propensity of the juvenile in the fact of his imperfect 
physical development. In brain and bodily structure, 
he belongs to an earlier age. He is born a pre-historic 
man with mind and moral faculties embryonic and dor- 
mant. Nothing but rude play can be expected until 
these faculties have had time to grow and be aroused to 
activity by culture. But we will hear Mr. Spencer 
speak for himself: "Do not expect from children a 
great amount of moral goodness. During his childhood 
every civilized man passes through that phase of char- 
acter exhibited by the barbarous race from which he is 
descended. As the child's feature's — a flat nose, for- 
ward-opening nostrils, large lips, wide-apart eyes, 
absent frontal sinus, etc. — resemble for a time those of 
the savage. So too do his instincts. Hence the tend- 
ency to cruelty, to thieving, to lying, so general among 
children — tendencies which, even without the aid of 
discipline, will become more or less modified just as 
the features do. The popular idea that children are 
innocent, while it may be true so far as refers to the 
knowledge of evil, is totally untrue so far as it refers to 
evil impulses, as half an hour's observation in the 
nursery will prove to any one. Boys when left to 
themselves in the public school treat each other more 
brutally than men do ; and were they left to themselves 
at an early age, their brutality would still be more con- 
spicuous.'' A mild way of saying every child in organi- 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUaH PLAY. 59 

zation and character is born a barbarian and must be 
civilized by growth and culture. 

The human nature of the refined and modern times 
is evidently the same human nature of the savage and 
uncultivated ancient times, with the superadded capac- 
ity for improvement. It was no saint as it appeared 
in the dark and bloody ages of long ago, and it is 
not much more saintly now. It is only a wiser and 
a better education that has made a wiser and better age. 
As the young of domestic animals in their natural activ- 
ity play the wild animal ; so no sport is so much rel- 
ished by the average child as " playing Indian." 

Every small boy is expected to have a saving clause 
of meanness. Dr. Thomas Hunter, President of the 
New York Normal School, says : " One who has ob- 
served the habits of chidren can scarcely avoid the 
conclusion that man is born with an instinctive desire 
to destroy, and that the natural state of man is war. 
Every parent realizes this to his cost. The child de- 
lights to break things to pieces, to pluck up flowers, to 
break shrubs, to rob birds' nests, to smash eggs, to 
quarrel, to fight, and in fact to be a cruel little animal. 
It takes the constant guidance of his mother to avoid 
and check this savage propensity." 

But this early manifestation of depravity is no proph- 
ecy of a future desperado. The wise old butterfly did 
not despair because her child began life an ugly worm. 
It, too, will take on wings and paint in due time. 

There is not only something pious in the Sunday 
School literature that makes good children die early, 
but there is something beneficent in the Providence 



A 



60 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



which removes those pious children so soon from earth. 
If they were permitted to live in most cases they would 
disappoint their fond parents' expectation ; instead of 
growing into phenomenal goodness they would grow 
into negatives. Some one has said that " the good- 
goody boy may become a man with energy to grease a 
wagon, but will not own the wagon or have money to 
buy the grease." 

The little desperado is probably sowing his wild oats 
early, and there will be time and soil for a second crop 
of better things. This early manifestation of depravity 
is more likely a drop of royal blood that still circulates 
in his veins. It is a spark of the soul of some barbar- 
ian chief who never knew defeat ; the inherited pluck 
and courage of some ancestral warrior who conquered 
the world and exercised the king's divine right to rule ; 
and this game little hero, who will do his worst or have 
the best of everything, will one day have courage to do 
and dare in the divine cause of right. 

Dr. O. W. Holmes, looking backward from his eight- 
ieth year, reports observation to this effect. He tells 
us that he knew some of those dear, good saints from 
the cradle up, and they lacked a great deal of being 
angels when they were small boys and girls, and adds : 
" What a remorseless destroyer the boy is. Nothing is 
desired by him so much as to be the owner of a gun, 
and no sport is relished so much as to go shooting. 
Wherever bird or squirrel or rabbit is seen, bang goes 
the gun, and fur and feathers fly like chaff." And the 
doctor philosophizes: "This instinct of destructive- 
ness was derived from the first roaming ancestry who 



SELF -EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 61 

lived oflf the game captured in the chase." And yet 
those vicious little nimrods grew into men so senti- 
mentally kind they could not even kill a fly. When the 
fly trap was full the dear good soul would carry it into 
the yard and release all the nasty little captives at the 
risk of all being in the house again before an hour. 

Henry Ward Beecher, the philanthropist and natural- 
ist of riper years, when a small boy delighted in the 
vivisection of mice and birds and insects. Reporting 
reminiscences of his childhood : " As a boy I thought 
flies were meant to pluck out their wings and legs and 
see how they would act ; and that fish, birds and squir- 
rels were made for man's sport in catching and eating. 
I finally came to look differently on these little ani- 
mated bits of existence, and to regard them as parts and 
parcels of the great family for which the Heavenly 
Father cares and provides." 

RUDENESS BORN RIPE; GOODNESS IN THE BUD. 

Legend tells us that the Minerva sprang full-grown 
from the brain of Jupiter. It seems in some cases that 
all the meanness to which flesh is heir leaps full-grown 
from the tongue and fingers of the infantile desperado. 
The child is capable of being a little imp from the 
cradle up, and there is no telling what a diabolus he 
may become in a day and a year. The heart-sore and 
foot-sore mother has been heard to say that measles and 
mumps came as a beneficent Providence, a temporary 
relief. Watching by the little wayward's sick bed is not 
half so distracting as the constant vigilance required 
to keep him under control. 



62 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



One little Charley B. is remembered. Smart as a 
young one ever was ; beautiful as angel of light, and 
bad as an angel of darkness. By way of experiment, 
the rod, the dark room, putting to bed without supper, 
ghost stories and tales of sad disaster had all been tried 
and failed. The only effect was to reveal the depths of 
infantile depravity and stubbornness of his unyielding 
will. Moral suasion only served to bring out exhibi- 
tions of cunning, craft and methods of evading discov- 
ery. If told of the black man who gets bad children, 
he defiantly answered, " I'd kill him." When warned 
of the tragical death of the boy who stole apples and 
went into the sewer to eat them, where he was suffo- 
cated with the foul gas, and found dead with some of 
the stolen apples in his pockets : " Why didn't he eat 
them quick, den nobody ud knowed it," was the vicious 
reply. They are not all good children who die early. 
When at the age of five death subdued that self-will which 
no other power had been able to subdue ; when death 
quieted those hands and feet which no other power had 
been able to quiet, the bereaved mother found sorrow- 
ful consolation in the thought she had rather see that 
beautiful form in the infantile coffin than live haunted 
with the dread of that life ending in the halter. 

No ; a thousand times no. Such children are not 
born for the gallows. It was the ardent impulses, the 
indomitable and fiery energies awakened in advance of 
the mental and moral faculties. These would certainly 
have come in due time. Such a childhood must be an 
unspeakable care to the mother ; but that is no sign the 
manhood will not be great, honored, good, a blessing to 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 63 



the world. Faust said, " Two souls are born in each 
human breast, the good soul and the bad soul." The 
bad soul was more used by the ancients, and for this 
reason is born ripe, ready for rudeness as soon as the child 
is capable of activity, or at least has acquired a habit 
of quick growth and early maturity ; while the good 
soul is born in the seed and requires time, growth and 
culture to bring its virtues into active operation. 

The perverse impulses of the child are like the in- 
stincts of the animal, inherited from a long line of 
ancestry. In the lives and habits of his progenitors 
they were lived over and over again in endless succes- 
sion. 

What cycles came and went before man appeared on 
the globe, none can tell. But all the rock-written 
records, as interpreted by geologists, testify that ani- 
mals roamed through gigantic forests, that birds sported 
and warbled in the air, and that broad tempestuous 
seas were inhabited by fish, ages and myriads of ages, 
before man had an abode on this earth. The creator 
made life self-creating, self-developing and self-educat- 
ing. The ways and habits of living things, like great 
truths, first appear in rudimentary form and each suc- 
cessive generation furnishes more favorable soil for 
growth and development. What has often been done, 
and at first done with difiiculty by the parents, becomes 
a second nature, a self-acting law of being impressed 
on the life of the child, and goes into graceful and 
spontaneous operation. Here is the origin and explan- 
ation of animal instinct. It is organization and apti- 
tude growing more conformed to the necessities of the 



64 CHIIiD-PLAY, OR 



animal each generation, till it is finally born with per- 
fect adaptation to its environments and goes into 
operation without thought or effort. 

Mr. Louis Robinson writing up the natural history of 
the horse and the foes he encountered in a wild state, 
makes the virtue of speed a necessity. He says " The 
galloping power of the horse was undoubtedly devel- 
oped to enable him to escape pursuit of the gaunt and 
hungry wolf. So certainly does this appear to my 
mind that I never see a wolf in a menagerie without 
feeling inclined to raise my hat to him and thank him 
for many an exhiliarating gallop on horseback. If his 
blood-thirsty fathers had not been, there would have 
been no marvelous speed belonging to the horse." 
From a long line of galloping steeds the colt has 
inherited an organization fitting him for speed and 
endurance. He is born into life on stilts, a timid con- 
trivance ready-made for scaring and running away. 
He is on his feet a race horse from the first day of 
his life. 

Deep in the unknown past some necessity stimulated 
the bird to song and nest-building and from a long line 
of warbling creatures each bird inherits ready-made 
the power of song and nest-building skill. 

From a countless number of honey gathering gener- 
ations, the bee has inherited ready-made the embodied 
wisdom of all the ancestral bees that ever buzzed and 
stung and invented bee-lines, and now each bee at its 
first flight abroad knows what plants yield honey, how 
to collect the treasures of sweet, at what angles to 
build the comb and all its exquisite geometrical and 



SELK-KDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 65 

architectural contrivances are complete beyond the 
possibility of improvement. Little by little instinct 
was developed to perfection. Each successive genera- 
tion hastened to maturity the in-born habits and dis- 
positions of the ancestry. 

This is a universal law and applies to human life 
as well. 

Each child is born with a two-fold endowment ; on 
the one hand an animal organization and instinct 
inherited from the earliest and darkest ages. On the 
other hand mental and moral faculties which were not 
much exercised in the early history of the race. The 
idea of inheriting the earth by being meek, kind and 
just is comparatively a new idea. The golden rule and 
such injunctions as " Love your enemies," "Overcome 
evil with good," " Bear one another's burdens and so 
fulfill the law of Christ," were unknown to the first 
fathers of mankind. They were neither long known 
nor much practiced by the fathers and mothers who 
did know them. 

The ten commandments have not yet got into the 
blood and bones of the rising generation. The child- 
ren only inherit the moral and the christian impulses 
as the faintest stirring in their lives, which must be 
provided with the most favorable conditions of devel- 
opment. A great deal of family discipline is required 
in the form of sugar-plums and otherwise. Instruction 
in the catechism must^be given, patient nursing in the 
Sunday-school and a long period of being " preached 
at " to get the juveniles of our day to conform to this 
new mode of life or rather future mode of life. Human 



66 CHILD -PLAY, OB 



beings some day may inherit these moral qualities 
ready-made, as a ripe instinct governing society both 
individually and collectively from the cradle up. But 
they must be first practiced for a thousand years or two 
or ten by the fathers and mothers. Dr. Holmes' idea of 
beginning the education of the child with the grand- 
mother was not far enough back. 

It is consoling for the mother to know that the 
vicious traits of character are born ripe in the child and 
go into operation as soon as the child is capable of 
activity, not from her fault or neglect, but because they 
were practiced by our progenitors in the dark and 
bloody times of long ago. 

Far back, in the childhood of the world, the long- 
haired savage led a life entirely devoted to his selfish 
impulses and appetites. Roaming the forest in quest 
of food, digging roots, searching for berries, with lance 
or club in hand-leaping from behind trees or rocks 
upon the wary animal, were the virtues by which he 
lived and which he bequeathed to coming generations. 
Every one for self was his motto. Completely free 
from all sense of responsibility, if his stomach were 
full, if his body were wrapped in a hairy skin he cared 
little whether starvation or some handy beast took the 
hindmost. His only thought of mutual help was for 
the purpose of blood-shedding. The only close com- 
munion he had with his fellow beings was in the war 
council where plans were devised for driving other 
savage hordes from his hunting ground. 

The moral code has been changed. What was once 
regarded as good is now thought to be evil. What once 



SELF^ EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 67 

seemed to be right has grown to be a wrong. The very 
habits which we regard as the vices of the child and 
proof of the total depravity of the race were the saving 
virtues of the primitive man. The pacific habits 
esteemed and honored in our day were the unpardon- 
able sins in those early times of danger and strife. 

The doctrine of " the survival of the fittest " applied 
to those first born children of mankind, meant the sur- 
vival of the one with the fiercest temper, with swiftest 
feet, strongest arms and longest club. History of no 
ancient date tells of a Socrates who was removed by 
poison, a Christ who was crucified, a Stephen who was 
stoned, a Paul who was beheaded, a Servetus who was 
burned at the stake because they advocated the rule of 
faith, hope and charity as better than craft, cunning 
and violence. As late as the Greek and Roman civil- 
ization the gymnasium and palestra were the most 
revered temples on earth, and wrestling, running, box- 
ing and prize-fighting were esteemed as mental and 
moral culture and religious worship all in one. Think 
of the forlorn condition of the amiable and honest sav- 
age surrounded by other savages more cruel than the 
wild beasts of the wood. He would be a weakling ex- 
posed to the ridicule and jeers of his wild and cunning 
companions, and would speedily fall a prey to their 
rudeness and cruelty. 

The soul of one of these ancient savages, by a freak 
of transmigration, was reborn to modern earth. He 
found as companions in play a group of hoodlums, nat- 
ural boys and girls as unsophisticated as himself. His 
sole ambition was to climb higher, dive deeper, come 



68 CHILD - PLAY OR, 



up dryer, to out-wrestle, to out-run, to out-jump and to 
out-fight the crowd. The little bully often came home 
badly bruised and scarred ; but his boast was that the 
other fellow got the worst of it. When his mother 
warned him of the danger of fighting. " Danger !" he 
answered defiantly, " If I didn't fight, I'd been dead 
long ago." A chapter of the old world bound in kid. 

Those traits of character early developed in the his- 
tory of the race are earliest developed in the life of the 
individual. Paul wrote this much in the Bible : " The 
first man was of the earth earthy, the second man was 
the Lord from heaven." The " old man " inherited 
ready made; the "new man,'' the child of moral and 
spiritual culture. " First, that which is natural," the 
life of the hunter and warrior, a life of stealth, craft and 
violence ; then " that which is spiritual," the life of 
love, trust and fraternity ; or as Faust puts it, " two 
souls dwell in the human breast." The bad soul wide 
awake, the good soul fast asleep. The child will be 
naturally quick and wise to be selfish, passionate and 
pugnacious ; but he must be taught to be unselfish, 
aflTectionate, truthful and obedient. With little or no 
training he will be able to do those things which the 
first fathers of mankind did in the wild and savage 
state. With little or no learning he is capable of be- 
coming a self-taught expert in malicious sport. 

Almost any teacher who has lived long enough to see 
the bitter bud grow into the ripe fruit, could tell a story 
of the little bully who once scratched her face and 
broke her heart. The young incorrigible was sent to 
school because he was intolerable at home. Here his 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 69 

worst passions found a field of activity. He was dom- 
ineering and cruel to his associates, who gave him a 
wide berth ; self-willed and rebellious, he was a terror 
to his teacher, not only violating every injunction, but 
often anticipating and opposing her wishes with malig- 
nant delight. Any effort at restraint was resisted with 
kicks, scratches and curses. But as the story ends, the 
better side of his nature eventually prevailed, and with 
time and culture he grew to be one of the brightest and 
best of the school. 

Even George Washington, with all his superhuman 
goodness, had to pass through the juvenile period of 
vandalism. And if recent investigation had not discov- 
ered that there had never been a cherry tree on his 
father's farm, some future archaeologist would have dis- 
sipated this mythical model of youthful propriety, and 
shown that George's readiness to own up that he cut 
the cherry tree was an exhibition of braggadocio and 
defiance and not the result of remorse and loyalty to the 
truth. Such a child George would be the promise of 
General George Washington. 

It is not exhibitions of infantile rudeness which need 
excite the parent's alarm. The destiny of the child 
hangs upon later developments and future culture. He 
is to be born again as well in a natural as spiritual 
sense. Each child life is a paradox with infinite possi- 
bilities leading in different directions. What the end 
will be depends largely upon education. Borrowing a 
figure from Emerson, the Western traveler who has 
lost his way may safely throw the reins over his horse's 
neck, and the instinct of the beast will find the right 



70 CHILD -PliAY, OB 



road and carry the rider safely to his home. But if we 
release young child-life from all control and give the 
reins into his own hands he will go back into barbar- 
ism. Gentleness and refinement, a sense of justice, a 
high regard for truth, a disposition to sacrifice our- 
selves for the good of others do not naturally grow up 
without culture. But nature eventually turning more 
into that direction works with and aids moral culture. 
In each human life there is a time of transition, like 
the change of season from winter to spring, when the 
reforming forces of nature co-operate with, multiply 
and intensify the garnered results of those who are 
laboring for the mental, moral and spiritual elevation of 
the human being. But while those graces are not 
altogether acquired virtues, they will not grow and 
blossom and bear fruit without culture. 

Legend informs us that Romulus was suckled by a 
wolf. This perhaps is an allegorical way the Romans 
had to account for the rude and cruel propensity of their 
ancestry. Each child will find something to nurse and 
cherish him. If not nursed and mothered by refined 
and gentle culture the wolf will become his foster 
mother, and he will grow up a wolf to his fellow-being. 
His way will be marked by disaster and sorrow. 

We repeat, the heedless disposition of the child, his 
rude manners and vicious disposition does not determine 
the career of the man. His future lies dormant and 
undeveloped in the mind and soul till growth and cul- 
ture awakens it into activity. The first man was of the 
earth earthy, the second man is the minded one. The 
word "man" means the "minded one,'' the "reasoning 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 71 

one," the "teachable and progressive one." The mind 
or the soul is the human being's crowning attribute. It 
is the supreme endowment which distinguishes man 
from beast or bird. But it must not be forgotten that 
while the organization of the animal is born ripe, the 
powers and capacities of the mind are brought into 
active operations by education. Man is the " educa- 
table" one, and what instinct does for the animal, 
growth and education does for the man. Each beast 
and insect repeats over and over again in endless suc- 
cession the mode of life practiced by their progenitors ; 
but mind is educatable. Under the hand of the 
"minded one," old things are constantly passing away 
and new devices take their place. If one should return 
to earth from a former century, he would be exceed- 
ingly embarrassed with our new fangled notions. Our 
houses, our furniture, our clothing, our articles of use 
in field and factory would all be so strangely new to 
him that he could neither understand their use nor tell 
their names. An ever-advancing education is placing 
the progress of this age on the top of other progressive 
ages so that man is constantly surprised and startled at 
his own achievements. What wonder will this wonder- 
producing mind create next? This ever-changing and 
progressing world is but the counterpart of the change 
and unfolding of the human mind and soul. 

All this advancement is the outer expression of inner 
growth and progress. It is the visible manifestation of 
transformations and transfigurations which are con- 
stantly going on in the invisible mind and life of 
the human being. 



72 CHILD - PLAY 



The evolution from the bitter bud to the sweet ripe 
fruit, the growth of the tiny gaping bird in the nest to 
the feathered songster in the air, the constant recon- 
struction and reformation of society in the rapid advance 
of the world from the low state barbarism to the new 
heaven and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness, 
are all outer expressions and parallels of the evolution 
of childhood into manhood. It doth not yet appear 
what the child shall be, but we know that when he 
becomes a man he will put away childish things, or 
more correctly stated as he becomes a man those child- 
ish things will put themselves away. 



CHAPTER V. 



Physical Development Through Play. 

" Now hear the tops and marbles roll ! 
The floors— Oh, woe betide them ! 
And I must watch the banisters, 
For I know boys who ride them. 

But never mind, if eyes keep bright 
And limbs grow straight and limber ; 
We'd rather lose the tree's whole bark 
Than find unsound the timber. — Selected. 

Dr. O. W. Holmes permits his fancy to wander away 
back into pre-historic deeps in search of the origin of 
art and architecture. He wonders how the great un- 
known masters fixed the forms and eternal types of the 
monumental pyramids and obelisks. In the absence 
of historical testimony the Doctor assumes that in all 
ages wherever children and sand come together that 
the children would be engaged in play, and that the 
sand would be their plaything. How happy those 
desert born children must have been. With such an in- 
exhaustible source of innocent amusement as the desert 
sand aflforded it would be easy to be good. They would 
hardly be tempted to steal dates, to tease the young 
crocodiles or play too near the donkey's heels, or be un- 
pleasant with each other as children in less favored 
lands have often been because they could find nothing 
else to do. 

6 (73) 



74 CHILD - PLAY, OR 



Among the familiar sights around the tent doors were 
seen the sloping sides of miniature sand pyramids 
formed by the grains of sand streaming through the 
closed hands of those little sun-browned desert boys 
and girls, for whom the desert sand formed their earli- 
est playthings. The older people caught the idea, or 
perhaps from force of habit continued their play tnto 
adult years, and playing on a larger scale and with more 
enduring material, built the pyramids. 

But if play did not lay the foundation of the Egyp- 
tian pyramids it does lay the foundation of the child's 
own physical development. Life is a bewildering mys- 
tery, and strangest of all because it was created self- 
creating and self-impelling. Children are born in their 
weakness, with the possibility of bodily growth, thought 
and action. This in-born potency of being and doing 
instinctively impels them to effort. By their spon- 
taneous and playful efforts they bring into exercise this 
creative energy, and by doing develops capacity for 
better doing. The child talks so much and plays so 
much because the inborn spirit of life stimulates him 
to prattle and play as a condition of bodily and mental 
growth. 

Play is self-creative life doing the work of creation. 
When animals play it is for the creation of animal life. 
When the child plays it is for the creation of human 
life. When the muscles play it is for the creation of 
physical life. When the mind plays it is for the crea- 
tion of mental life. It is through play that nature 
develops the child in all the faculties, both physical and 
mental. 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 



The child's play has a grand meaning. It signifies 
nothing less than the work of self-creation. These little 
busy idlers devoted to their silly toys are engaged in 
building greater than the Egyptian Pyramids. They 
are the architects of their own body ; yes, their minds 
and souls as well. The circulating life current is filled 
and kept going by their playful activity. The human 
body, so beautifully and wonderfully made, is composed 
of more than two hundred bones, more than five hun- 
dred muscles, more than ten thousand nerves, arteries 
and veins, and each of these has a daily growth, a daily 
wear and needs daily repairing. Each day the vital 
centers must be renewed, the efiete matter eliminated 
and new building material supplied to the body in such 
a way that bone food will be interwoven with bone, mus- 
cle food with the muscle, appropriate nourishment for 
nerve, artery, nail and hair carried to its appropriate place 
and all absorbed and assimilated into the life of the re- 
spective parts of the body. The old religious code taught 
" that if a man did not work, neither should he eat." The 
law of nature giving sanction to this precept has set a fear- 
ful penalty on eating when the food is not earned by labor 
of some kind. Food taken by those who exist in torpid 
inactivity not only fails to nourish, but it is converted 
into poison and destroys health and life. This law is 
as severely true for the child as for the adult. The 
child that does not play cannot eat and live. Exercise 
is necessary to all, and especially to young life, to 
stimulate the different organs of the body, to hunger 
for food, to digest and assimilate their nourishment. 



76 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



If any member of the child's body is deprived of the 
free use of itself, growth is arrested. A visit to any 
large surgical sanitarium will afford many sad illustra- 
tions. There can be seen hundreds of different forms 
of deformity, withered limbs hanging hideous and help- 
less not half their natural size ; crooked spines, dwarfed 
bodies, men's heads on bodies not larger than those of 
children. 

Those malformations are no longer a mysterious 
providence. The defective limb had by some accident 
been disqualified for free play, and as a necessary result 
was starved and dwarfed into fearful deformity. The 
exercised members of the body had grown to full and 
symmetrical form ; the enfeebled and inactive limbs 
were only half grown, and that a sickly and unsightly 
growth. The remedy is, remove the impedient. Give 
the dwarfed limb its natural activity and nature will do 
the rest, restore it whole like the other. 

This alone is a sufficient solution of the play prob- 
lem. Some impatient of the delay and apparent waste 
of time may say, "What have these juveniles ever 
done ? What worthy results can they show for all the 
ceaseless activity, eating and acting their ten thousand 
antics?" After breaking most other fragile things it 
seemed as if they would tear themselves to pieces ; ex- 
\ pensive boarders wasting their time in idleness, they 
"^never fail to be hungry and eat. But in the versatility 
of their fun and frolic they set the thousand occult 
parts of their body going in the work of self-creation. 
Phideas gave his life to build the Parthenon, and 
spent years of loving care on a single statue. To carve 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 77 

out a Venus or an Apollo, to shape a block of marble 
into an exact resemblance of a beautiful human form 
was work enough to immortalize one name. 

But these little automatic workers have been the 
architects of their own bodies, the creator of their own 
minds ; not a dumb, dead, make-believe ; not a surface 
imitation of some living reality. But this childish play 
has built and fashioned a real human body, animated 
with life and health, thrilled with hope, thought and 
love, a fit temple for the immortal soul. 

A little girl that had been promised a visit to the 
country changed the amen of her last home prayer to 
" Dood by, Dod, I'm doing to the tountry." No, not 
that way, God goes with the child to the country. The 
child grows by fidgeting, by out-door romps. The 
fields and forests are to those little folks the very gate 
of heaven, and like Jacob of old, God is with children 
in their out-door life when they know it not, and even 
inclines them to go there sometimes when we think 
their eagerness to be away is a temptation of the 
evil one. 

A prosey Sunday-school teacher began his address at 
a late hour of the meeting with the remark *' I do not 
like to be disturbed while speaking and if any of the 
children are weary and would like to go before I have 
finished I would like them to do so now." After a 
moment's pause, a little fellow took his hat and walked 
out, then another, and another till only one child was 
left in the school, and that one was sound asleep. 
Those who would catch children must take them on 
the wing. A kind-hearted old clergyman hoping to 



78 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



inspire a boy with ideas of a higher and a better life 
promised to give him a new testament. The little 
wide-awake fellow quick to see his opportunity, 
answered, "Yes. Please give me a new testament and 
give me a new pop-gun too." 

A Sunday-school teacher offered a heedless lad a 
bright new silver dollar if he would learn his bible 
verses. The little torment spoke up as quick as 
thought, "You bet, I'll get 'em. Cause I want the dol- 
lar to buy a new sled," 

Children are thoughtless, irreverent, always hungry 
and caring only for play. We often inquire why were 
they made thus. But where we fail to understand and 
manage them nature may still have them under perfect 
control. 

Compare the ruddy, romping child unconsciously 
impelled to the conditions of growth and health by 
self-creating and self-regulating nature within — com- 
pare him with the self-conscious student of fresh air, 
diet and all the laws of health. This student of his 
own anatomy by brooding over them creates the very 
evils he would avoid. The dimpled, curly, rosy-cheeked 
cherub is growing into the highest type of physical 
beauty without ever stopping play long enough to 
think or care for beauty. He is obeying all the laws of 
health without being conscious that there are any such 
laws. He is cultivating and developing body, mind, 
senses, and sociability in symmetrical proportion, all 
by playing his sweet little pranks till hungry and over- 
powered by a fatigue, he eats, lies down and sleeps. 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 79 

and, if he thinks at all, it is only in eager desire to 
renew his madness and folly another day. 

Dear little thoughtless thing! He is building wiser 
than he knows. Let him who thinks play lost time or 
busy idleness, observe the fearful consequences of its 
privations. Let him observe the effect on the temper 
and morals of the child. The child denied the exercise 
and play grows nervous, peevish, ill-tempered, and 
seems to suffer from general uncomfortableness. Well- 
guided and well-timed play is necessary to make the 
temper happy and sunny, "^lay is necessary to health. 
The fearful mortality among children m crowded flats 
and tenement houses where the play-grounds are 
restricted does more to reduce the average of human 
life than any other cause, intemperance excepted. 
t/<rhis play period is characterized as the growth 
period. Children play and grow, grow in body and 
grow in mind. Nature has moulded and fashioned 
matter into many beautiful forms. Plant life, bird and 
beast life have their beauty and admirers. But of all 
that is earth-born, the human body in its perfection is 
nature's grandest production and the most exquisite of 
divine creations. 

To be able to admire and reproduce the human form 
on canvas or in marble is proof of genius that immor- 
talized the names of artists and sculptors, and associ- 
ated their greatness with that of kings, warriors 
and poets. 

The Greeks' and Romans' highest ambition was to 
develop the human form to perfection. They had 
observed that the body was developed by its own activ- 



80 CHILD - PLAY, OB 



ity; and eager to aid nature they carried physical 
culture to such an extreme as to suppress the natural 
activity of the child by prescribed artificial methods. 
Physical culture and bodily dexterity was the chief fea- 
ture of Greek and Roman education. Both mental 
and physical instruction were given in the same gym- 
nasium. They had no appreciation of dead knowledge. 
Their idea of culture was bodily exercise, regulated for 
the purpose of developing strength and manly grace. 
A sound body was thought essential to a sound mind 
and correct morals. Juvenal in his apology for the 
Olympian games argues, "The harmonious develop- 
ment of the body, and indeed of every single limb, is 
of the utmost importance for the attainment of self- 
conscious determination in the practical affairs of every 
day life ; and that the moral effect of athletic exercise 
on the young men protected them from laziness and its 
accompanying vices and endowed them with a combi- 
nation of good physical and mental qualifications." 

Actuated by these considerations, the Greeks pro- 
vided every facility for physical culture and encouraged 
and enforced athletic training by every possible motive. 

The state provided gymnasia and palaestra and sup- 
ported public games, such as foot racing, wrestling and 
boxing. The gymnasia, palestra and public squares 
were decorated with marble and bronze statutes of 
heroes distinguished for bodily strength, beauty of 
form and manly grace. These statues were at once 
models for imitation and also inspiration for athletic 
culture. 



SELF- KDUCATIOiV THROUGH PLAV. 81 

1 . 

As a still further inducement, the Greeks had not 
only a physical morality but a muscular religion ; and 
the athletic games had all the authority and sanction of 
a religious exercise. The Jewish and Christian relig- 
ions were serious and devotional. 

With the Greeks and Romans religion meant culture, 
development of body and mind, it meant art and state 
craft. Consequently the athletic games would neces- 
sarily constitute a part of their religion ; and all honor, 
social, national and religious would be bestowed on the 
victorious of these games. The victors were crowned 
with laurel or palm in the temple of the Jupiter. They 
were conducted with pomp to their native cities which 
they entered through a breach made in the wall for that 
express purpose. Their praise was sung by poets, and 
inscriptions and statues of brass announced their fame 
to coming generations. Such were the sacred honors 
awarded to successful physical culture with those 
ancient nations. 

And yet all the national and religious energy devoted 
to physical culture was only aiding and co-operating 
with the natural activity of the child. The instinctive 
and spontaneous play of the juvenile has the same 
meaning, and in a great measure accomplishes the 
same end in a surer and safer way. His excessive 
effort exposed the athlete to danger in various ways. 
Accident and disease from over exertion in the palestra 
was a common occurrence, and the victor winning a 
suicidal crown sometimes fell dead at the goal. 

'Where play was denied this artificial exercise was 
better than none at all. But the pyhsiologist will tell 



82 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



you that the ancient or modern gymnasia do not secure 
an equitable distribution of action to all parts of the 
body, and, consequently, leads to disproportionate de- 
velopment, fatigue, exhaustion and often to disease and 
death. 

The life, health and growth of the body is condi- 
tioned on each member having its share of exercise. 
Over-exercise an organ of the body and it perishes from 
exhaustion ; under-exercise it, and it perishes from atro- 
phy or a lack of nourishment. 

What specialist in anatomy and physiology could 
prescribe to keep all the bones, muscles and nerves of 
the human body in harmonious operation. If the body 
of the child was developed alone under the supervision 
of scientific instruction, some parts would receive too 
much attention, and some parts would be overlooked 
and neglected altogether ; in one organ the muscles 
would be piled up in abnormal development ; in another 
unused and neglected, there would be wasting away of 
the tissue till only the tendons would be left. 

The student of anatomy and physiology often grad- 
uates from the study of the human body, himself broken 
down in health, stooped in form from the effect of un- 
developed muscles, peevish and weak in mind from the 
effect of disordered nerves. Mr. Herbert Spencer voices 
the whole matter in a single paragraph. He says : 
" Play being denied there has been adopted a system of 
fictitious exercise — gymnastics. This is better than 
nothing, but an inadequate substitute for play. In the 
first place, these formal muscular motions, much less 
varied than those accompanying juvenile sport, do not 



SELF -EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 83 



secure equitable distribution of action to all parts of the 
body, and if constantly repeated this exertion of special 
parts leads to disproportionate development ; again, the 
exercise falling on special parts will produce fatigue 
sooner than it would have done, and the exercise taken 
will be insufficient, and worse still there will be lack of 
interest." 

Contrast the free and spontaneous play activity with 
the prescribed course in the gymnasium. 

Like the shuttle-cock each passing moment the little 
fidget is caught by some new whim and flies oflf in a 
totally unexpected direction. The only thing certain 
is that he will not be interested in the same thing for 
two seconds together. Nature with an eye to symmet- 
rical development of body and mind tasks and exer- 
cises every limb and every faculty. The child's play 
appears to be a restless, random activity. He tries 
every experiment that can afford a moment's amuse- 
ment — climbing trees, teaching the chickens to swim, 
trying on grandma's " specks," turning the chairs up- 
side down, tumbling heels over head, teasing for the 
privilege of going on errands, and then so engrossed in 
frolic and fun that he forgets to go. The only thing 
certain is that the child has no fixed interest. 

As the story runs, a stalwart man, on a wager, agreed 
to go with a frisky five-year old boy a whole day, dupli- 
cating every act and antic. 

The programme began at 6:24 a. m., by the child 
placing two chairs on the bed, spreading a quilt over 
them for a Gypsy tent and playing Gypsy before he 
dressed. He next put his pants on wrong side foremost 



84 CHILD - PLAY OR, 



and slid down stairs on the banisters, and squirmed and 
kicked most rebelliously when his mother required him 
to reverse his clothes. At breakfast he paused in the 
midst of the meal, crawled under the table and pouted 
because he did not get the "butterfly plate." Break- 
fast over, in the space of forty minutes he went twice 
to the cellar, rummaged the attic in search of material 
for a kite, broke a glass out of the greenhouse with his 
nigger shooter, climbed a cherry tree from which he 
fell, breaking a branch and bruising his arm. After 
whimpering seven minutes, he resumed business by 
weeding out a row of early tomatoes — tomato plants, 
weeds and all together. After this he found brief 
amusement in riding astride the handle of a broom. 
Then going into the house he tied two chairs together 
and pranced proudly, dragging the chairs across the 
floor. This sport becoming monotonous, after seating 
himself on the chair and sliding off" a dozen times or 
so, he varied his amusement by crawling through the 
round beneath the chair, all of which the aforesaid 
adult faithfully copied, until he stuck fast in his vain 
endeavor to crawl between the rounds of the chair at 
10:38 A. M. 

It is a moderate estimate to suppose the value of this 
four hours and fourteen minutes play equaled the train- 
ing taken in the gymnasium one day, exercising all 
parts of the body as no artificial training ever did. 

This endless variety of pursuit and attitude means 
exercise and expansion for all the various kinds of 
energy, physical, manual, social and intellectual. In 
this constant and ever varying sport every part of 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 85 

the human organism has been touched and trained to 
higher development and no part worked to fatigue or 
exhaustion. The trunk, the limbs, the heart, the lungs, 
the tongue, the eyes, the ears, the senses, the mind, the 
aifections all get their share of activity, no more, no 
less. 

The Greeks agonized and trained to painful exhaus- 
tion, and often to death, to produce in some instances 
the perfect human form. 

But God commanded the child to be self-developing 
and keeps him obedient to the laws of nature by the 
inherent delight of doing. He plays simply for the 
happiness that the play aflfords. The child plays and 
grows like the plants of spring. He plays and unfolds 
in beauty like the rose or lily. He plays and lives as 
free from care as the birds that neither sow nor reap. 

The play of the child is ended at last ; but the play 
of the child ends in the bloom of youth. Its product 
is a young man or a young woman with rounded figure, 
rosy cheeks and laughing eyes, overflowing with health 
and animated with loveliness and good-humor ; its 
product is a beau or belle adorned with bodily beauty 
and perfection, and loved with an admiration and pas- 
sion that carries everything before it. Moral and men- 
tal culture increases the charmsf of personal beauty. 
But of the many elements uniting to produce that 
complex emotion called love, the strongest are physical 
attractions. 

Child life, free from all anxiety and sense of respon- 
sibility, was directed to do and achieve all this under 
the disguise of thoughtless, happiness bearing play. 



86 CHILD - PLAY 



The superficial observer could see nothing but the child 
abandoned to the cheap and easy delights of life. 
Children are so careless and indififerent, they say. Let 
the little thoughtless things have a good time while 
they can, trouble will come soon enough. But this lack 
of wisdom was full of deep and wise meaning. All 
their antics and exertions are a means to an end of the 
first importance. They are doing for themselves a work 
that could be entrusted to no other. God made life 
self-creating, self-impelling and self-directing, and their 
play meant nothing less than their development into 
symmetrically proportioned men and women. 



CHAPTER VI. 



Mental Development Through Play. 

" After long ages of blindness men are at last seeing that this 
spontaneous activity of the observing faculty in children has a 
meaning and a use ; that what was once thought mere purposeless 
action or play or mischief, as the case may be, is now recognized 
as a process of acquiring a knowledge on which all after knowl- 
edge is based. " — Herbert Spencer. 

" The first six years are as full of advancement as the six days 
of creation, and the child at six years has already learned more 
than the student learns in the entire university course." 

,UCINA, the Roman goddess who presided at the 
birth of children, prescribed that, at the very 
moment of birth, just as the infant tasted the first breath 
of atmosphere, it should be laid on the ground. This 
ceremony signified that the earth was to awaken the 
mind and soul into intelligent activity, and to be the 
nursery of the child's growth and education. 

But the world, its inhabitants, its language, its wealth 
of things and ways are all unknown to this little stran- 
ger. How can it be introduced and made acquainted ? 
The mind as well as the body needs development. 
Capacity must first be created before instruction can be 
given. 

We can hardly realize what a tiny, helpless creature 
the infant is at the beginning. A mixed up little mass 
of humanity, it is born with the five senses all in fusion, 
making a sum total of no sense at all. For weeks all 
it can do is eat and sleep. It has everything to learn — 

(87) 



CHILD -PIjAY, or 



no thought, no language, no intelligent use of hand, 
foot, eye, ear or even of appetite. Like a little bird in 
the nest it opens its mouth and takes in everything 
offered. 

No first impression can be made through the use of 
language. We experience great difiiculty in making 
ourselves understood when we try to interest grown 
persons with a description of a new thing. We can not 
use words to convey our meaning until our auditors 
know something of language and of what we are talk- 
ing about. But this little blank mind has neither fore- 
knowledge of the subject nor any understanding of the 
use and meaning of words. Words to it are not even 
" Dutch." They are only a faint, buzzing sound in the 
ear. 

The world is full of what older people call father, 
mother, brother, sister, house, trees, chickens, kittens, 
plates, spoons and a hundred thousand other things. 
But to the infant all these things are only so many ever- 
passing and ever-changing sensations. They are not 
even sweet things and bitter things, dark things and 
bright things, soft things and hard things ; the little, 
bewildered and overwhelmed blankling* does not know 
enough to take them in as things in any form. They 
are no thing at all, just a jumbled up mass of chaos. 
To call house " housie " and book " bookie,'' to weave 
the little know-nothing back and , forth .^in the cradle or 
in the arms and say "ookie'' or " swingie " does not 
help to start its intellect. Baby abbreviations do not 
translate Greek into English ; they do not make an un- 
known tongue any easier to understand. 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PI.AY. 89 

For months the infant does not know its toes from 
toys or even itself from anybody else. 

Cuvier, the naturalist, fancied that Adam, created 
with full-grown faculties, could not distinguish between 
himself and surrounding objects ; and he pictures him 
as a grown-up child wandering about in ecstacy at the 
discovery of so many parts of himself. But finally, by 
a great many experiments, this first man comes to know 
his own personal identity, and that beasts and trees 
about him were not himself, but some other thing outside 
of self. 

The child must learn to compare the sensations of 
sight and touch ; he must get ideas of locality and be 
able to realize himself in one place and things not him- 
self in another place before he realizes that the I is one 
thing and the thing not I another. 

" This is I " is not a baby or even a young child 
thought. When the boy plays horse he does so because 
he thinks himself a horse. When the little girl plays 
chicken she thinks herself a chicken ; and the boy is in 
trousers and the girl out of her bib before they have any 
clear discrimination between the " I " and the things 
not " I." The world and its fulness to the infant child 
is very much like being cold or warm to older people. 
The problem is where to locate the being cold or being 
warm, inside or outside of ourselves. This little new- 
comer is overwhelmed and bewildered at every sight 
and sound ; but does not know enough to take in the 
situation and be overwhelmed and bewildered at all. 

The infant mind is a negative ; how does it begin to 
be a positive quantity ? It is a blank ; how is the first 
line of intelligence written on this blank page? 



90 CHILD -PL, AY, OR 



There are three steps in the highway by which the 
child passes out of ignorance into knowledge : First, 
sensation ; second, perception ; third, thought. Sensa- 
tion is the impression made on the mind through the 
medium of the organs of sense, a feeling awakened by 
the presence of external objects. There are five senses, 
seeing, hearing, tasting, touching and smelling ; these 
lie at the foundation of all intelligence. It is beyond 
the power of the most exalted mind to invent knowl- 
edge. That comes to us by discovery, and these five 
senses are the means through which the discovery is 
made. 

Perception is a recognition of what particular thing 
caused the sensation. 

Thought is the exercise of the mind in the discovery 
of the causes and effects and relations of things. 

A towering, branching thing confronts the child. 
The playing lights and shadows are reflected back and 
make a felt image of the thing on the eye. That felt 
image is the sensation of sight. 

By and by the child grows investigative. A curiosity 
is excited in the mind of the little investigator to know 
what that thing is. In some way he gets to know it as 
a tree. That is perception. Later curiosity goes fur- 
ther and discovers the origin of trees and their relation 
to other parts of the vegetable kingdom. That is 
thought. 

An explosive bow-wowing falls on the ear ; that is the 
sensation of hearing. By some hook or crook this bow- 
wowing thing comes to be known as a dog ; that is per- 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 91 

ception. Later that dog is investigated in his relation 
to other dogs or quadrupeds ; that is thought. 

A little bare-foot cherub stubs his toe against a hard, 
bruising thing. The ensuing pain is the sensation of 
touch. 

After investigation he comes to know that hard, 
bruising thing as a stone ; that is perception. 

Later he develops into a geologist, and investigates 
the origin of the stones ; their relations to other miner- 
als, and philosophizes about the elements in general; 
that is thought. 

But the child does not stumble on information by 
accident as he stumbles on the stones. He undergoes 
transformation like other specimens of natural history. 
Mental activity begins in the form of interrogation, and 
the child from two years to five is a question propound- 
ing little animal. He is come into a marvelous world full 
of nameless wonder ; and driven by some inner impulse 
he is bent on understanding its mysteries. The little 
inquisitor goes about poking his fingers into everything 
and poking his questions at everybody. Volley after 
volley of " whats " and " whys " are fired at the impa- 
tient nurse and long-sufiering mother. 

If he nails his mother to the wall in his search for the 
unreachable beginning of things, he wheels about in 
search for the unreachable end of things. And how 
queer and puzzling his questions are. 

" See ! see ! ma, wat's dat?" 

" It's a bird, dear." 

" What does birds eat?" 

" Crumbs and insects." 



92 CHILD -PLAY, OK 



" What is insects, ma?" 

" Flies and bugs." 

*' Does flies and bugs love to be eat?" 

" Oh, hush ! hush !" 

Silenced for a moment, the sparkling eyes of a ven- 
turesome mouse seen in a dark corner winds up the 
little question-asking machine and sets it going again. 

" Mamma, wat's the good of a mouse?" 

"No good. They're nasty little things.'' 

" Does their mozer wash their faces and make them 
nice?'' 

" No, hush ! you bother me." 

" Does God make mice bad?" 

" Hush ! my head aches.'' 

" Did God make the Bad Man, mamma?" 

" Oh, you little bother ! don't tease me.'' 

Thus month after month, each new observation pulls 
the trigger and out shoots another volley of questions. 
The older the child gets the longer, harder and crook- 
eder his questions become, and the more he is determ- 
ined to have them answered in his own way. The little 
would-be Solomon seeks information concerning plants 
and trees, from the moss that grows on the rails to the 
cedars of Lebanon ; concerning beasts, birds, insects, 
domestic institutions, social science, theology and met- 
aphysics : he pries into everything, from the twinkling 
sky lights above to the glow worm beneath. 

After a few years of question asking, he amazes you 
again by being an answerer of questions. At first his 
mind seems to be all interrogation points ; now it 
seems to be the pages of a great written book. A little 



SELF -EDUCATION THKOUGH PLAY. 93 

naturalist, he not only knows birds by wings and feather ; 
but he knows each genus and species by their chirp, 
pipe, trill, warble, scream or cackle. He can make a 
bee line to any bird's nest within the radius of a half 
mile. At sight of the nest or by counting the spots on 
the eggs he can tell what bird the nest belongs to, 
whether quail, meadow-lark, gold finch, tit-mouse or 
bobolink. He knows just where to find bees' and wasps' 
nests, woodchuck and ground squirrel burrows and fish 
pools. He knows where the first violet blooms in the 
spring and the latest golden rod in autumn. He can 
be safely trusted to gather nuts, sweet roots and salads. 
It was the young prophets not " that boy " which mis- 
took wild gourds for yellow docks and brought conster- 
nation to Elijah's boarding house. 

The age of question probing is also the age of finger 
probing. The activity of the child leading to mental 
development may be divided into two classes : 

First, investigative play. 

Second, play applied to practical purpose, such as as- 
sisting others in their work. 

INVESTIGATIVE PLAY. 

The older children had been preparing a surprise for 
their father. All forenoon the little toddling sister had 
been in training on the two Scripture verses, " consider 
the lilies how they grow,'' and ** suffer little children to 
come unto me." When the father came home these 
verses were to be recited. At the appointed signal the 
little stamerer began, "Consider" — and they were all 



94 CHILD -PLA.Y, OR 



amazed when she ended up, " Consider little children 
how they grow." 

This is all the explanation that can be given. The 
child mind and lily both grow and unfold in obedience 
each to its own law of life. " He increased in wisdom 
and stature." As the body grows taller, the mind 
grows more active and observing. Consider little chil- 
dren how they grow. Day by day we can almost see 
them grow in body and mind. The senses gradually 
grow sharp and discriminating, and by methods of their 
own, as well as by the help of teachers, they begin to 
discover the name and use of things, and oh, how recep- 
tive these little folks are. Their eyes and ears and 
minds are as open to impressions as the earth is open to 
the air, the showers and light of heaven ; as open to 
impression as the field is to the falling seed. 

Some naturalist has said, "The child is only a 
zoophyte with a stomach and feelers reaching out in 
every direction for something to fill it." It is true the 
child has a hungry stomach, but he does not live by 
bread alone. His eyes are hungry, his ears are hungry, 
his curiosity is hungry. The little living interrogation 
point is always putting out his mental feelers to see 
what kind of a life it is into which he has come, and 
what the world is made of. His curiosity seems more 
hungry than his stomach. It is all plain now, " Con- 
sider little children how they grow." The child is 
drawn by some inner force in the right direction for de- 
velopment. Nature has taken him under her care, and 
is leading and teaching him as no other teacher can. 
There is something between the child and the world that 



SELF - EDUCATION THROU(}H PLAY. 95 

makes them pull together. The world needs the child 
to dress it and develop its resources ; and the child needs 
the world and its fullness — and away he goes playing 
exploration. 

Nature has endowed the child with a vivid curiosity, 
urging him to see, handle, taste and smell. His keen 
eyes and ears, his restless little hands are always on 
the alert. He is so eager to gratify curiosity that he 
delves into everything, the knowable and the unknow- 
able. His active mind is constantly gaining knowl- 
edge, and often from very scanty sources. Play is the 
name we give this natural activity, and this play is often 
so rude. The constructive faculty is born wrong end 
foremost in the child, and first appears as the destruc- 
tive faculty. Wholly absorbed in the pleasure of some 
new pursuit, he is by no means superficial in his inves- 
tigation. It penetrates beneath the surface. He breaks 
the china, tears the books, whittles the furniture, pulls 
the stufiing out of the upholstery, scratches his nurse 
and plays with the fire first and fears it later. He has 
plucked from the tree of knowledge of good and evil 
all the fruit his mischievious little hands could reach. 

We call this destructive propensity mischief because 
it annoys us ; and the alarmed parents take the matter 
into serious consideration. The child is going astray 
and something must be done to reclaim the little wan- 
derer. If the mother is a cruel mother, she calls him 
naughty names and spanks him. If she is an orthodox 
mother, she calls it theological names ; it is '' original 
sin," " total depravity." If she is a pious mother she 
prays for him. If she is a wise mother she puts the 



96 CHILD - PLAY, OR 



china and scissors on the highest shelf, and gives him 
something that he can break and remake as often as he 
likes. It is indeed a critical period in child life ; but 
there is no occasion for alarm. This destructive pro- 
pensity is not depravity, either total or in part. It is 
more probably the first budding of mechanical genius. 
The little pioneer is out on an exploring tour, to find 
out what sort of an existence it is into which he has 
come. He is getting acquainted with his environments. 
He is finding out what the world is made of; and all 
the time there is an inner force urging him in the right 
direction. 

The glory of the world is, it answers to human 
wants. It places its resources at human disposal ; and 
the human being begins his career by trying to master 
his surroundings. It requires digging and breaking and 
investigating to get at the secret treasures of the world. 
They are not offered for our use ready made. By the 
work of these busy hands, the child will one day master 
the world and make its wealth his own. He is already 
hastening that day. The child's development proceeds 
from his own activity ; and the little destroyer is doing 
for his own advancement the only thing he can do. He 
can not make a mirror, but with a hatchet he can 
break one. By this act he has learned something of the 
power of the hatchet and the fragile nature of the glass. 
He can not read a book, but he can tear one, and in so 
doing he has discovered one of the qualities of paper. 
He can not kindle a fire, but he can make practical 
demonstration of its burning qualities. He is too 
young to make a penknife, but he is old enough to cut 



SELK - KIJUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 97 

his fingers and discover the danger of edged tools. 
Experience is a dear school, but there is where children 
get their first lessons. 

Much can be done to shorten this destructive period. 
Not by trying to enforce lessons of quiet obedience, but 
by guiding this new power of doing into better chan- 
nels. 

Miss Harrison, kindergarten teacher and skilled in 
child culture, says: " Give him playthings that can be 
taken to pieces and put together without injury to the 
material; dolls that can be dressed and undressed; 
horses that can be harnessed and unharnessed ; carts to 
which horses may be fastened at will or any like toys. 
Blocks which can be built into various new forms are 
admirable playthings for children; the more of their 
own ideas they can put into re-arrangement the better." 
To be shown through a picture book is a gratification 
to children, and at a very early age, they catch the idea 
and become ambitious to make pictures for themselves, 
and they beg for pencil and paper. Nature is here 
pointing out another path by which they may be led to 
find useful amusement. There is no end to the resources 
of slate and pencil for the child. 

The child is also delighted with bright colors ; and 
nature again hints how he may be helped in the work 
of self-culture. Provide him a box of paints and 
encourage him to play the artist ; no matter how gro- 
tesque the shape of his trees and birds and animals ; no 
matter how daubed and glaring his colors. The question 
is not whether the child has produced good drawings. 
This was not expected. But the question is whether the 



98 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



child has been trained to be an interested observer of 
trees, of birds and animals ; whether he is developing his 
faculties, gaining the use of his mind, eyes and fingers, 
and advancing himself in his efforts to know and do. 

The instinct of creativity once started in operation, 
the depraved imp experiences speedy regeneration and 
the whole family is made to rejoice in his conversion. 
This destructive propensity is the first form of produc- 
tive industry. Ignorant and awkward at first, by 
degrees the mind is stored with knowledge and the 
hands are trained to skill. " Consider little children 
how they grow.'' Their bodies grow. It is not the 
parents' anxiety that adds the cubit to their stature. 
Their minds grow and are constantly growing more in 
accordance with the conditions of their well-being. 
Their ideas are becoming truer and more conformed to 
facts and propriety. Their intelligence answers more 
completely to their surroundings ; and new and valuable 
experiences are being rapidly acquired. The child 
grows not by being quiet, but by just such activity as 
children are capable of. Activity in fact is the first and 
indispensable condition of development. Says Prof. 
Clifford: "The development of an organism proceeds 
from its activity rather than from its passivity, and the 
mind must act, create, make fresh powers, and discover 
new facts. The mind that would grow must let no 
idea become permanent except such as lead to action." 

The child gets his intellectual food through this 
activity called play, or naughtiness or mischief. We 
call it play when he mimics some pursuit of older peo- 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 99 



pie ; we call it mischief or naughtiness if his activity 
is random, desultory and annoying. 

But as the mind becomes more developed, the pTay 
changes form in obedience to a fixed course of progress. 
The disposition changes, the child becomes sympathetic 
and companionable. He desires to communicate in a 
social way and to participate in the pursuits of older 
people. He grows loquacious and instrusive. His 
awkward and blundering effort to do something he can 
not do, and his awkward and stammering effort to say 
something he can not quite say, are always amusing and 
often annoying. But both saying and doing find con- 
stant expression in that natural activity called play, 
and with the growth of the mind the play becomes 
more intelligent and from this time assumes the form 
of playing sociability and work. This is prophetic of a 
better day when the two sides of life will be better bal- 
anced, when knowledge and action will walk hand in 
hand. Thus nature goes on with her plan. Wisdom 
underlies the child's folly. The infant begins life over- 
flowing with the spirit of adventure and investigation. 
The little busy body intrudes his meddlesome fingers into 
everything and his interrogations at everybody. But 
the mind unfolds and garners knowledge and the fin- 
gers grow skillful through their own activity. Consider 
little children how they grow. First the tender blade, 
ill-shaped and with some thorns on it, then the green 
and forming fruit. But as the child progresses in the 
work of self-education a change steals over his taste for 
sport and play. 



100 CHILD - PLAY, OR 



PLAY, CHANGING FORM, THE CHILD NOW DESIRES TO 

ASSIST. 

In this second stage of development the child has an 
insatiable desire to participate in every kind of work. 
The little intruder wearies one with his importunity to 
be permitted to help do the cooking, to aid in spread- 
ing the table, in washing, sewing, cultivating the gar- 
den. He wants to help his papa to shave, to drive the 
carriage, to light the gas, to wind the watch or to mix 
the medicine for the baby. He must have his hand in 
everything that is done under the sun. In his earnest 
desire to do, he will beg for participation in affairs 
requiring the most thorough knowledge and the great- 
est skill. He will eagerly take responsibility that an 
angel would shudder to assume. The little hero has 
been known to volunteer to mount a vicious horse from 
which the rider had just been thrown. He pleads : " It 
won't do dat way wif me, if I 'ide it." 

It is all in vain to tell the audacious adventurer that 
he can't do it, or that it is dangerous, or that his help 
gives more trouble than his work is worth. The par- 
ent soon discovers the easiest way to get rid of his 
annoyance is to give him a side show where he can do 
something like what is done in house, field or factory, 
and at the same time have the little "nuisance" out of 
the way of older people. 

The assistance which children oflfer is indeed a 
mixed up quantity of play, carelessness and mistakes. 
Their help does cost more trouble than their work is 
worth to-day. But there is a to morrow. And for the 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAV. 101 

sake^of that'to-morrow and next year, oh, what loving 
care is due to those little workers ! 

Work"andj.play gets mixed up and some mistakes are 
made, some duty neglected and the little blunderer is 
rebuked, scolded, corrected bewildered till life becomes 
a mystery and a burden. 

A poorj^little self-conscious girl had lost the scissors 
and had been scolded for it ; had asked leave to wash 
the dishes,^,broke a china cup and had been scolded for 
it; had torn her dress and had been scolded for that; 
had "taken her reader to the play-house and left it to be 
rained on, and had been scolded for that; had begged 
for permission to go on an errand and forgot what she 
went for. She had been scolded and found fault with, 
till a whole world of faults and reprimands were con- 
stantly ringing in her ears and rendering life a burden. 
With a consciousness of sins committed and sins not 
committed she was so accustomed to fault finding that 
nothing else was expected. The little penitent, like 
Topsy, was ready to make short work of it by confess- 
ing to everything charged against her whether she was 
guilty or not. 

One day at Sunday School the teacher asked her "Who 
made the world?" She thought to herself, "There 
it is again. Something about the world had gone wrong, 
had been broken or was lost, and she was to blame for 
it." vShe blushed, looked guilty and confused. The 
teacher finally repeated the question, "Jennie, you can 
certainly tell us who made the world." And with a 
downcast look ahe answered, " I made it, but I won't do 
so any more." 



102 CHILD - PLAY, OR 



The child's mistakes crossing over from play to work 
is of the same origin as the early destructive propensity. 
The activity of the little automaton runs ahead of his 
judgment. But this eagerness to help is a command of 
nature which must be heard and obeyed at the peril of 
the child. The mind and the body grow by activity, at 
first a random and blundering activity. Nature's 
method is not to first store the mind with dead knowl- 
edge to be put in practice later, but to develop head and 
hand together. All intelligent observers have been 
agreed as to the necessity of growing by doing. 

Said the great Teacher, " If any man do the works, 
he shall know." Bishop Brooks put this same fact in 
another form when he said, " The human life exists in 
the two-fold form of thinking and doing, and these two 
never can be separated so that all the thinking can be 
done at one time and all the doing at another." 

Professor Clifford warns us of the danger of attempt- 
ing to separate mental and physical activity. He says, 
*' A mind that would grow must let no idea become per- 
manent except such as lead to action." 

Doing reacts on thinking, and every thought wants to 
express itself in action. Theory is perfected by prac- 
tice. The key to the hidden truth is obedience to the 
truth, and the idea can only grow clear by completing 
itself in work. The embodiment of the beautiful gives 
a revelation of a higher beauty. 

These are fundamental principles, and nature prompts 
the child to put them into practical operation in his 
eagerness to participate in everything he sees older 
people doing. It requires all the faculties of body and 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 103 

mind to complete the individual unity. The tutelage of 
this play school develops the child head, heart, hand, 
foot, eye, body and mind, knowing and doing in one 
symmetrical whole. 

In the school room it is first theory and the practice 
is deferred till the child goes out into the|^ world. But 
in this play education, theory and practice go hand in 
hand. Nature declares from the cradle up that faith 
without work is dead; that love can only grow by 
doing deeds of love ; that truth can only be known by 
obedience to the truth ; that knowledge is perfected by 
practice ; that courage is developed by doing valorous 
deeds. It is the practice that clears the mind, reveals 
defects, completes the thought and finally grows into 
skill, into habits and character. 

This playing work is the germinal form of real work. 
This happy make-believe industry will one day grow 
and ripen into genuine productive industry. Nature is 
tasking and training her pupils for the arduous duties 
of later life. But how cunningly and stealthily she 
tempts those whimsical little idlers to work. She 
throws some bewitching spell, some happy illusion over 
their young lives, and they are so full of glee. They 
only see the bright side of life, and their work, with all 
its profound depths and meaning, only seems to them 
and us as play, as waste time. The world and its work 
is so beautiful ! To be a helper makes life so sweet, so 
happy ! And all this time they are kept so free from 
anxiety concerning the future ; so free from a sense of 
responsibility and so delighted with their play pursuits, 
that it all seems done for present gratification and to 



104 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



make childhood happy. But under this busy happi- 
ness nature is concealing the most tremendous and far- 
reaching results. These busy little idlers are led by a 
way they know not, are doing a work they think not, 
and are using means to an end they do not foresee. 

This disposition to assist is a heaven born impulse, 
and should be encouraged with the most tender and 
thoughtful care. It is the young soul stretching its 
wings for a most lofty flight, which, if rightly guided, 
will land in usefulness and joy. 

This playing work is an essential factor in the devel- 
opment of mind and body, in acquiring tact and skill, in 
forming habits and developing character, in laying the 
foundation for pleasant memory and a happy dis- 
position. 

But nature in all her grand achievements contem- 
plates the co-operation of man. In the development of 
the child's mind she brings her work to a final and fin- 
ished form through the agency of parent and teacher. 

Young life is always plastic and easily molded by cir- 
cumstances. The naturalists tell us that the thorn 
bush and apple tree originally were one. One seed 
falling from this tree into a fertile soil and being aided 
by culture grew into an apple tree, and its buds opened 
into beautiful bloom and ripened into delicious fruit. 

The other seed fell into a desert soil, where it grew 
into a dwarfed and stunted bush. It was dwarfed and 
trampled upon by the wild cattle, until at last in self- 
defense the bud changed form and grew into the thorn 
instead of developing into bloom and fruit. The un- 
friendly environments converted the beauty and utility 



SELF - EDUCATION THBOUGH PLAY. 105 

into its danger and deformity. There are many ways of 
dwarfing the bud and bloom of youth into the thorn. 
Repress those efforts of assistance because they are more 
trouble than the work is worth. The result is, that in- 
clination to participate and assist are stifled in the germ, 
energy and skill are dwarfed and the poor, hungry mind 
and soul seek relief in morbid excitement. The talent 
that might have been devoted to truth, to justice and 
generous deeds is now squandered in dissipation. It is 
now too late to scold those playful intruders out of sight ; 
too late to criticise their mistakes or to find fault with 
their idle and worthless habits. To these poor victims 
of morbid appetite labor has become an insupportable 
drudgery and idleness an unalterable habit, fixed and 
enforced by incompetency. 



CHAFTKR VII. 



Play a SeIf=Education in the Use of the Senses. 

" From the hour of birth we learn by experience to explain the 
sensation of our senses; and by a hundred experiments which we 
make with eye, ear and limb in every day life, we arrive at con- 
clusions that the objects of sensation, that is, their ultimate 
cause, is external to ourselves." — Julius Bernstein. 

"Infants must go through a long education of eye and ear 
before they perceive the realities which adults perceive." 

—Prof. W. James. 

fHE infant enters life a stranger in a strange land. 
Things are strange and startling to him because 
they are new. The little newcomer sees, hears, touches 
and tastes for the first time. He never saw, or heard, 
or did the like before. And as any other stranger 
would be in the premises, he is timid and cautious. 
We grown up folks, by long association, have become 
familiar with all common-place things. We know 
their names and nature ; even when they look alike 
and act alike, we have learned which is harmless and 
which to avoid. We know which is the five-leafed ivy 
and which is the poison vine. We know which is the 
hornet-nest and which is the bird-nest. We know 
which are carnivorous and which are herbivorous ani- 
mals, and know that the cow eats clover blossoms, but 
does not eat children. We know that barking dogs do 
not bite. We know that the big-eyed insect, dressed in 
brilliant and variegated silk, trimmed with finest lace, 

107 



108 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



is the harmless gad-fly and has no deadly sting ; that 
the strutting turkey gobler is all fuss and feathers. We 
have sorted out these things and know where there is 
danger and where there is safety. But the little blun- 
dering innocent abroad has no such discrimination. His 
chief endowment is the instinct of self-preservation 
which the creator gives to all defenseless creatures. 

We have observed the timidity of all young animals 
and what fright and frenzy are excited by unfamiliar 
sights and sounds. But of all young life, the infant 
child is most helpless and most timid. Every unknown 
sight and noise is startling to the babe. A thousand 
common-place things, which adults no longer notice, to 
the childish fancy are perfectly terrible. The infant in 
the mother's arms turn from the stranger's glance and 
hides his face against his mother's shoulder. Later, 
when walking with his nurse in field or street, she 
observes his big eyes wide open with wonder and feels 
the firm grasp of his tiny fingers clinging close for pro- 
tection, even- when there is no apparent cause for alarm. 

A little boy who came suddenly upon a sunbeam 
lying across the floor of the shaded room, was very 
much frightened, and jumped across it as one strains 
to leap a chasm. Afterward, he came back and exam- 
ined it carefully and finding it harmless, he stepped 
serenely through it. 

Mothers are accustomed to turn this natural timidity 
to account in controlling their children. They tell of 
dangerous things concealed in forbidden places, and 
hedge in the restless little ones with stories of terror. 
They fill the confiding and receptive mind with grue- 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUOII PLAY. 109 

some imagination, and scare the child into nervous 
stupidity which secures freedom from bother for the 
present, at the cruel expense of his comfort and 
courage. 

A sagacious mother, who had' observed the extreme 
timidity of her one-year-old daughter, utilized the little 
thing's fears for her own convenience. Catching the 
hint from the flaming sword which guarded the 
entrance to Eden, she substituted a feather as sufficient 
for the case in hand. When she wished to keep the 
child in, she simply laid a feather across the door. The 
child, afraid to pass that feather, would sit and watch 
it for hours in fearful and fascinated silence. The 
world would not have tempted her to pass through the 
door guarded by such a bug-a-boo. 

We all remember being dressed in our best and sent 
on an errand to a neighbor, sent more to show how 
prettily we were dressed than for the errand. But, 
meeting a person with dusky complexion or odd man- 
ners, we became fearfully alarmed, climbed over the 
fence, waded a brook, cut across the fields and ran back 
home all out of breath, with new shoes and new dress 
in dreadful plight. The world in which adults feel so 
secure, is to the timid child a wilderness inhabited 
with wonders and appalling dangers of every kind. 

The dark is especially full of terror and the child's 
fancy peoples it with a thousand imaginary dangers. 

A little girl was put to bed in a lonely room. Her 
head had no sooner touched the pillow than she was 
startled with what she supposed to be the muffled 
sound of foot-steps on the floor. Summoning all her 



110 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



courage, she arose, lit the lamp and carefully searched 
every closet and corner. But failing to find the 
intruder, she lay down, and after repeated observations 
finally discovered the supposed foot-steps were only 
the beatings of her own heart. 

But the world is most strange and startling, because 
to the eye and ear of the child things appear so difier- 
ent from what they do to older people. The general 
impression is that we see just because we have eyes; 
that we hear just because we have ears ; that we taste 
and smell just because we have mouths and noses; 
that we handle and walk just because we have feet and 
hands. But the fact is the use of these senses is 
acquired by practice. As the infant feet and hands 
must be educated to stand and walk and handle, so the 
infant eye, ear and touch must go through a long pre- 
paratory course of training before the child perceives 
the reality which adults perceive. 

SEEING COLOR, PRIMARY; SEEING DISTANCE, MAGNI- 
NITUDE AND FORM, SECONDARY. 

The ceaseless manifestations of nature are a never- 
ending source of delight. But of all her different 
modes of revelation, none are more pleasing than that 
series of sense impression called color. To be blind is 
the greatest of privations — greatest because the sightless 
eyes are denied the joy of beholding the bright light 
of day and the brilliant colors of field and forest. 
While this exhibition of visible nature is marvelous for 
its beauty, it is also marvelous in the means by which 
it is produced. Color is but a form of motion — a form 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. Ill 

of motion appealing to the eye. An ocean of wave 
motions, which in minuteness and speed are altogether 
beyond perception are coursing their way through 
space, and pulsating in every direction without in the 
least interfering with or neutralizing each other. 

The diflferent manifestations which we call heat and 
and sound and light are but diflferent forms of motion 
appealing to the diflferent senses. One form of these 
waves, breaking on the living body, thrill it with warmth 
and comfort, set the blood circulating in the veins and 
stimulate busy life to thought and action. 

Another form of these wave motions, breaking on the 
ear, are melted into the voices of nature and the charms 
of music. The longer and slower vibrations produce 
the lower sounds — lower than the deepest bass of the 
church organ, and as they quicken the sound rises in 
pitch till it travels over the entire musical scale. 

Still another form of these wave motions, breaking on 
the eye, is melted into color. The slowest of these 
waves pulsating against the eye at the rate of 39 
billion vibrations per second, produces the sensation of 
red ; quickened in speed to 47 billion per second, the 
red is changed into green ; quickened to 57 billion, the 
green is changed to violet. 

When all these waves act and interact together, the 
result is the white light of day. Acting and interacting 
in ever-changing combination, they exhibit to our en- 
raptured vision the exquisite tints of the evening sky, 
the many hued arches of the rainbow, the gorgeous 
livery of field and forest, the soft verdure of hill and 
valley, the variegated plumage of birds, the sheen and 



112 CHILD -PLAY, OK 



shimmer of insects and the animated glow of the human 
countenance. 

How this quivering ether, vibrating against the ear, 
is reported to the soul a sound ; vibrating against the 
eye is reported as color, is a mystery which human 
wisdom can not fathom, But such is the problem of 
the hearing ear and the seeing eye. 

To distinguish sound the ear must be able to tell 
whether it is thrilled with sixteen shocks per second 
(the lowest tone), or by 38,000 shocks per second, the 
highest pitch. And such is the ability of the ear to 
detect variations, that with a little training it can ana- 
lyze this entangled, quivering mass of pulsations, and 
distinguish every tone of the most rapid speech, and 
even every note of every instrument of the largest 
orchestra. 

To distinguish color the eye must be able to tell 
whether it is thrilled by 39 billion, or by 47 billion, 
or by 57 billion shocks per second, or by the ever- 
changing combinations of each and all these vibra- 
tions pulsating together. But seeing is a natural gift, 
not acquired. The optic nerve is attuned to this mar- 
velous discrimination, and the fully developed, healthy 
eye, at first sight not only reads the fundamental colors, 
but discerns the most delicate tints and hues which 
gleam and sparkle and flash in kaleidoscopic variety 
from visible nature. 

Each organ is sensitive to its own peculiar kind of 
impressions. We do not see with our ears, hear with 
our eyes, or smell with our fingers. Sound is the only 



SEI.K-KDUOATION THROUGH PI.AY. 113 

revelation made to the ear — sound differing in time, 
tone and pitch. Education gives sound significance, 
converting it into the voices of nature, the delights of 
conversation and the charms of music. 

We receive no information whatever through the eye 
but a sense of color. The information we receive of 
distance, height, depth, form and magnitude all come 
originally to us through the sense of touch ; the feet 
usually reporting distance, the fingers, magnitude and 
form. We all remember how vague and incorrect was 
the first sight of unaccustomed things. How disap- 
pointing the first mountain seen, the first river, prairie, 
elephant, tree, or the first anything else the like of 
which had not been seen before. The mountain must 
be climbed to get an idea of its height, the river crossed 
to realize its width. The observer chins the horse, 
stands under the elephant, by the dwarf and com- 
pares their size with his own. The first view of the 
pyramids, the first sight of West Minister Abbey, or 
Niagara Falls is painfully disappointing and falla- 
cious. One is tempted to believe the pretended ecstacy 
at their sight is all snobbery. But as the observer 
walks about them, counting and recounting his steps, 
they grow in magnitude and sublimely until he too 
admires, wonders and extolls. Man himself is the 
standard of all measure. His habit of comparing 
them with the length of his step, the width of his 
hand, the height of his stature, sizes things up as great 
or small, low or tall, far or near. In the perception of 
distance, magnitude and form touch is primary and 
sight secondary. Blind children are known to gain 



114 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



ideas of distance, size and form as quickly and correctly 
as those who see. 

If we had the sense of sight without the sense of 
touch, colors would appear just as they do now, but all 
things would give the impression of a dead flat surface, 
so near, that they would seem to touch the eye. Such 
they appear to the infant whose sense of sight has not 
yet been perfected by blending with the sense of touch. 
There is a period when the child indiscriminately 
reaches for everything far and near. Often, when the 
infant is throwing out his arms, apparently for exer- 
cise, he is perhaps catching at something a mile away. 
The boy with inexperienced ideas of distance climbed 
the fence to get the moon, and when he discerned the 
deceptive orb was beyond the reach of infantile hands, 
he climbed down, deeply impressed that " things are 
not what they seem." How strange and terrific this 
world must appear to infantile eyes. Think of all the 
strange and shapeless things in the world staring the 
timid child in the face, so near that they seem to touch 
his eyes! Such near approach of unfamiliar things 
would startle older people. They would say " Please, 
don't be so familiar." 

It is only after long and painful experience that the 
child learns to associate the lights and shades and 
angles with the sense of touch, and to convert them 
into correct ideas of distance, magnitude and form, 
and be able to see the realities of things as adults per- 
ceive them. We do not sympathize with children in 
these trials because we have no means of discovering 
how things appear to them. 



SELF- EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 116 

The little toddling, who has seen only one spring, 
has seen about a hundred falls. The bruises and blue 
spots he receives in learning to walk are observed and 
pitied. The blundering baby-gibberish he gets ofif in 
learning to talk is observed and laughed at. But the 
child's eyes and ears are all his own private aflfairs. 
Funny, tottering steps, and awkward baby-words get 
into print and story. But equally funny and equally 
awkward seeing and hearing of the untrained baby-eye 
and ear are never reported, simply because they are 
unnoticed and unknown. If we could only get at some 
of the baby blunders made in seeing, what good jokes 
we would have on those untrained eyes. 

A lad was gradually losing his sight, but even his 
mother did not know he was going blind, till one day 
at noon he lit the lamp to aid him in discovering 
whether it was his own new suit or his grandfather's 
he was putting on. If this had been the act of a child we 
would have thought it the result of the vagaries of 
childhood rather than of defective vision. 

The necessity of preliminary training to enable the 
eye to see beyond color has not only been demonstrated 
by science, but the scientific conclusions have been 
verified by many facts. Prof. Preyer reports a number 
of cases of blind persons being restored to sight by 
surgical operation. Alike in every case the patient at 
first view had no perception of distance, no discernment 
of the outline or shape of objects. A difierence of 
color was at once observed, but everything appeared a 
perfectly flat surface, and things a foot distant and 
things a mile off all appeared equally near. 



116 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



An intelligent and poetic young lady had been blind 
from infancy with cataract. But imagination was to 
her more than eyes. Her fancy revealed in the beauties 
of art and wonders of nature. Enrapturing visions of 
brilliant skies, fertile fields, gorgeous flower gardens ; 
visions of beasts, birds and houses were constantly 
floating before her sightless eyes. As she was dawning 
into womanhood the cataract was removed and she saw 
as clearly as uneducated eyes ever did see. 

Color with all its beauty and brilliance flashed into 
her eyes with the first beams of light. But colored 
surface was all she saw. While things differed in ap- 
pearance, some red, some white, some a combination of 
all colors, she could ascertain nothing from her eyes 
except the sensation of color. Everything appeared to 
be flat surface, so near that it seemed to touch the eyes. 

" Learning to see " was indeed a weird and ludicrous 
experience for her, and laughable mistakes were con- 
stantly occurring. On the sixth day after seeing she 
was permitted to ride into the park. Delighted with 
bright colors, she was constantly looking for flowers 
When her attention was directed to a bed of pansies, 
she exclaimed, " What beautiful things pansies are !" 
The next moment seeing a group of gaily dressed ladies 
she said, " What lovely blossoms ! Why, it is another 
bed of pansies!" After returning home when asked 
what she saw, she replied, " I saw a great deal, only I 
can not tell you what I did see." Being laughed at for 
blunders she had made in seeing, she said, " Surely, I 
am very stupid, but please do not tease me with so 
many questions until I have learned a little better the 



SKLK- EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 117 

use of my eyes." At first seeing, deceived, confused and 
bewildered. She got more correct ideas by closing her 
eyes and feeling things. 

The professor reports the case of a bright young man 
who had been restored to sight. In the first use of his 
eyes he knew not the shape of anything, nor one thing 
from another however different in figure or magnitude. 
A square card was placed before him just as the light of 
day first entered his eyes, and he was asked to tell its 
shape and distance. " Let me touch it," said he, " and I 
will tell you." The request being denied, after looking 
and hesitating a long time, he said it was round. Then 
he was asked to touch it with a staff. In his vain endeavor 
to do so, the point of the stafi went above, below, in- 
side, beyond, everywhere but where the card was. His 
uneducated eyes deceived and tantalized him. "Things 
were not what or where they seem." It was indeed a 
curious task for him to learn to know the world by 
sight. A thousand things — people, houses, beasts, birds, 
all familiar to him by touch were all strangers by sight. 
Upon being told what things were, whose form he had 
known before by feeling, he would carefully observe 
them with eyes and fingers that he might know them 
when he would see them again. But having too many 
things to know at once, he learned and fojgot a hundred 
things a day. Having forgotten which was cat and 
which was dog, he was ashamed to ask. But catching 
the cat and knowing her by touch and then seriously 
observing her, he said : " Puss, I shall know you 
another day when I see you.'' Among other surprises, 
one was that food pleasant to the taste was not equally 



118 CHII^D-PLAY, OR 



beautiful to the eyes. When blind he imagined the 
things tasted good because they were good looking. 

PERCEPTION OF SIZE, FORM AND DISTANCE ACQUIRED 
THROUGH SENSE OF TOUCH. 

The five senses bring us into communication with 
external things. The forces which operate in the 
external world are light, sound, mechanical resistance 
and chemical afiinity. These forces impinging on the 
sensatory organs produce an irritation which through 
the nerves is carried to the brain. Each sense has its 
own specific irritant. The sense of sight is excited by 
light, the sense of hearing by sound, the sense of touch 
by mechanical resistance, the sense of taste by food or 
chemicals, the sense of smell by odors. 

Nature has partitioned off the world and the senses 
act in pairs in taking cognizance of things. The sense 
of taste is guided and guarded by the sense of smell. 
The ear and vocal organs act in unison in social com- 
munication. The eye and the sense of touch act in 
unison in gaining a knowledge of material things. 
The eye recognizes color; the sense of touch, form, 
distance and magnitude. 

Seeing sets the infantile feet and hands going, 
and unconsciously excites a disposition to touch and 
handle. What a wise provision of nature when we con- 
sider that eyes needs fingers and feet to help them see 
as much as fingers and feet need eyes to guide them in 
working and walking. It is touch which gives the first 
information of form and magnitude, and seeing instinc- 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PI^AY. 119 

tively starts the. hands going in the process of perfect- 
ing vision. 

Every beam of light that falls on the sensitive eye of 
the infant instinctively stimulates the little one to 
investigate the source whence it came. He turns his 
head toward the light and adjusts the eye so as to get 
a full view. His rude and restless hands hunger to 
grasp and handle every visible thing. He pulls his 
papa's whiskers, tousels his hair, scratches his face and 
catches at his watch chain. The infant is taken to the 
table at the risk of serious accident. He puts his fin- 
gers in the gravy, snatches the butter knife out of his 
mother's hand, seizes the tea cup and empties its con- 
tents on his own person. The little meddler " goes 
for " everything within his reach and cries for every- 
thing out of his reach. Nothing is too delicate or 
costly for his clumsy hands. He will know by touch 
cost what it will. His greedy fingers win for him the 
reputation of being a spoiled child and he is called all 
sorts of naughty names. 

A lady dressed in the height of fashion and wearing 
a gorgeously decorated bonnet imprudently visited the 
royal nursery of George II, of England. The beautiful 
bonnet caught the attention of the king's infant daugh- 
ter and she wanted it for a plaything, and like other 
children she kicked and screamed till her request was 
granted. It was more than a hundred years ago. But 
to this day it makes one shudder to think of the good 
lady being compelled to tear her bonnet from her head 
and give it into the hands of the little English Diavola. 
But English babies, royal babies and common babies, 



120 CHILD - PI.AY, OK 



all alike are inclined to see with both jsyes and fingers. 
The difiference is royal babies get what they cry for, 
and common babies cry for a good many things they 
do not get. 

Nearer to date, a clergyman going out left open the 
door of his study. His two-year-old son availed him- 
self of this opportunity to go in and take the dimension 
of things in general. He first stepped and spun 
round and round the study table till he was convinced 
that the table actually had length, breadth, and thick- 
ness. Then he climbed up and took the external 
dimensions of the inkstand, acquainting himself with 
all possible reflections from its octagonel surface. 
Next he emptied the contents on the newly carpeted 
floor, that he might get a better view of its internal 
proportions, and ended up by taking the area of his 
father's manuscript, leaving "firstly" and "thirdly" 
fearfully fumbled and confused. Finding a space on 
the floor that required a longer step to cross it than 
usual, he crossed and recrossed this space, repeating 
these longer steps a great many times. The little tor- 
ment, by this restless and meddlesome disposition, in a 
little while had explored and sized up all accessible 
things, measuring them by his difierent methods of 
step and touch. This fingering and circumambulating 
every seen thing is certainly nature's own training- 
school, where the eye and hand act in unison in gaining 
a knowledge of things. This simultaneous and coinci- 
dent sensation of sight and touch unite the color, the 
magnitude, the figure, the distance, all into one mental 
perception and the most occult problem of mental life 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 121 

is solved ; namely, to know things by the myriad beams 
of light and shade that are reflected from the surface of 
all visible things. 

In sizing up things man himself is the standard 
measure. In the Bible we read of a case where the 
'* measure of the city was the measure of a man." The 
measure of this world was evidently in its origin the 
measure of a child ; the idea of size and dimension was 
originally formed by comparing diSerent things with 
the size of different parts of the body. Just as children 
instinctively measure everything they can get at. Our 
existing units of measure tell the story of how the 
infant child (or child man) got his ideas of length, breadth 
and size from feeling and measuring different things 
with different parts of his body, using fingers and hands 
to measure small things, and steps to measure the 
larger. One thing was the length of his finger ; another 
was the breadth of his hand ; another was the length 
of his foot, of his arm, or his step. In this way the 
child not only gained a knowledge of distance and mag- 
nitude for himself, but he invented the units of measure 
for the whole race of mankind. His discoveries still 
survive in the "finger's length,'' the "hand-breadth," 
the " cubit," which is the length of the arm from the 
elbow to the tip of the finger, the " yard " or the 
"pace," the measure of the step left on the ground, or 
from the nose to the tip of the fingers; the " rod" or 
" five paces ;" the " mile," from the Latin mille^ a thou- 
sand paces ; the " fathom " or water as deep as a man's 
hand. These measures tell the story of how primitive 
man got his ideas of dimension ; and this inborn 



122 CHILD - PLAY, OR 



propensity of measuring and sizing up things is the 
only satisfactory explanation of the child's disposition 
to finger and grasp every visible thing. 

The act of seeing is perfected by handling the thing 
seen ; by going to and from and seeing them at dififerent 
distances ; by going round and seeing them at different 
angles. Every change of surface, of figure, of distance, 
reflects a different angle, a different light or shade, 
readily detected by the eye ; and as the child, after 
hearing a word spoken a great many times, learns to 
associate with it a certain idea, until the word and idea 
eventually become inseparable, and he can not hear the 
one without thinking of the other, so the eye learns to 
read the different lights, shades and angles, and uncon- 
sciously translates them into size, shape, surface and 
distance, until the observer has learned to deceive him- 
self, and thinks he sees a hundred things, which cer- 
tainly can only be known by the use of feet and fingers. 

We see and hear the expected, but the sight and 
sound comes more out of the mind than out of space. 
Seeing form is one of the wonders of early habituation. 
The different shades and angles have been so familiarly 
associated with different touches, goings and comings, 
that we never see color but what it raises the idea of 
dimension, magnitude and form. Imagination and 
memory collect the different sensations into one picture, 
so that we think we see with our eyes alone what is the 
joint production of eyes, fingers and feet. 

These appearances can all be skillfully imitated on a 
flat surface. The artist, borrowing lights and shades 
from nature, with the delicate touch of his pencil, 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 123 

transforms canvas into a landscape with distant moun- 
tains, out-spreading valleys, receding forest, groups 
of houses and people, some far and some near, all so 
nearly like the living realities, that with proper condi- 
tions it can be made to deceive the very elect. 

A humorous Irishman strolled into the studio of a 
distinguished artist and expressed approval or disap- 
proval in his own quaint way. " Mr. Artist, plase per- 
mit me to climb that great, green hill and take a peep 
at the majestic river which you have painted flowing 
beyant!" Again, "Would you be so koind as to stir 
yerself aud pull aside just a leetle that obstructin' 
branch ; it hinders the view of the very butiful land- 
scape behint it." 

These subtle principles of art have been utilized for 
the purpose of make believe in a thousand ways. 

In frescoing rooms the artist, by skillful use of lights 
and shades, gives the impression of raising or lowering 
the ceiling. By a combination of tints and colors he 
gives the impression of scrolls, friezes, moldings, re- 
cesses, receding arches and panels. Imitations of this 
kind b^^ome wonderiuUy real and vivid in stage efiects. 

To the eye the picture is an exhibition of towering 
mountains and deep valleys, the frescoing a brilliant dis- 
play of columns and receding arches. But the hand 
passed over this illusive scenery reveals a dead, flat sur- 
face. 

Now, which is the lying sense, sight or touch? It is 
the eye that is tricked. And there is a like trick in 
every thing seen. The eye calls attention to things on 
account of their color, but it is the feeling hand that 



124 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



sizes them up, into things rough and smooth, things 
near and far, things large and small. The everlasting 
fingering and fumbling of the restless little one is 
nature's own training school, where the child is learning 
to unite touch and sight into one perception ; learning 
to translate the flickering lights and shades called per- 
spective into a recognition of persons, chairs, tables, 
plates, spoons, toys and a thousand and one other things. 
And the little dupe soon tricks himself into the belief 
that he actually sees the shape, size and distance of 
things, when inffact he only infers their shape and size 
and distance. He first knows their form by touch, and 
unconsciously learns to infer their form by sight. This 
inference is so profoundly convincing that the conclu- 
sions of sight are accepted as infallible guides in know- 
ing what and where and how things are. Any three- 
year old child making a practical application of these 
color marks knows his own toys at sight, and will dare 
to defend his right to them with all the prowess of foot 
and fist. 

THE EAR MUST BE EDUCATED TO HEAR. 

In the unfolding of the infantile life, the sense of 
taste is first in order. From the hour of birth the 
infant distinguishes between sweet and bitter. But 
even this sense is modified by time and culture. Taste 
and smell at first act as one sense. The infant opens 
his mouth to receive a pleasant ordor as he does to take 
palatable food. Not till the seventeenth month do 
taste and smell become separate and distinct senses. 

The sense of sight becomes active twelve hours after 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 125 

birth. After the twenty-third day the child is delighted 
with bright colors. 

Hearing is the slowest and last of all the senses to 
be awakened to activity. At the close of the fourth 
day the ear is sensitive to sound. On the fourteenth 
day the infant is startled by explosive or rasping noise 
and is quieted by soft and soothing sound. At the age 
of seven weeks the infant has a decided ear for melody 
and is impressed with his mother's song. 

The question has been raised which sense affords the 
keenest pleasure ; the beauties of color, the sweets of 
melody, the voluptuous sensation of the touch, the 
pleasures of the palate or the luxurious odors of 
perfumery. 

A distinguished parson once said, " to most peo- 
ple the most agreeable smell is no smell at all." And yet 
as the story runs a number of oriental kings were the 
successive holders of a casket, skillfully interlaid with 
gold and precious stones in which they kept their most 
precious things, among which was their perfumery. 

But these senses were not given as a superabundant 
capacity for pleasure, or to diversify the sources of 
delight from which we may choose one and reject the 
other. Through the joint action of all the senses we 
know the world in all its forms and uses. Its color is 
revealed to the eye, its melody to the ear, its form to 
the sense of touch. 

Each of these senses has its advantage. The revela- 
tions made to the eye are by far the swiftest and most 
distant in their range. The lightbeam comes to us 
from the most distant star and makes us acquainted 



126 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



in some degree to the remotest ends of the universe. 
So rapid is the flight of light that it moves 890,000 
times faster than sound, and while sound would be trav- 
eling one mile light would travel thirty-seven times 
around the globe. And yet there are times and places 
where sound-waves have the advantage over the far- 
darting beam of light. 

Light moves only in straight lines and is arrested in 
its course by every opaque object. A mist clouds the 
sky and veils the stars from view. An intervening leaf 
or the gauzy web of a spider may render things near at 
hand invisible. 

But the course of the sound-wave is not so easily 
obstructed. Sound penetrates the thickest walls, trav- 
els by the most circuitous routes, floats up from the 
deepest mines and is distinctly heard in the darkest 
night. 

Hearing is as much needed as sight to bring us into 
contact with the world and into social communication 
with our fellow-beings. The ear is a harp of 3,000 
strings — 3, 000 fibers ofCorti have actually been counted, 
ranged together in the very small space of the human 
ear, called " Corti's organ." We have good reason to 
believe that each one of these cords is sensitive, not to 
all sounds, but only to the sounds identical to that to 
which itself is strung; so that every sound which 
enters the cavity of the ear sets vibrating the nerve 
which is strung to its own pitch. Consequently the 
human ear is capable of hearing about three thousand 
diflferent sounds, including the range of about eleven 
octaves. There are many sounds above or below this 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 127 

scale, which ears differently constituted could hear, but 
are inaudible to the human ear. 

Upon this harp of three thousand chords is played all 
the intelligence of the human mind, all the memories 
and emotions of the human heart. It interprets the cry 
of beasts and the song of birds. It translates the 
human voice into prayer, praise, social communication, 
systems of philosophy, bodies of divinity, stories of 
romance and historical narrative. 

But it is only the educated ear which hears these won- 
ders, which is able to interpret these myriad voices and 
translate them into significant meaning. Without long 
preliminary training '' having ears they do not hear." 

The telegraph is a talking machine, but it is only the 
skilled operator who is able to read its click, click, 
click. To all others its unintelligible rattle is as destitute 
of meaning as the rumble of the wheels on the street. 
But to the educated ear of the operator how wonder- 
fully full of meaning. He interprets and translates its 
monotonous click into the daily history of the world, 
written day by day. 

Now, it is a message from the king's palace. It tells 
the story that a great battle has been fought, a victory 
won, a mighty revolution is ended. 

Again it is a story from a peasant's cottage, a child is 
sick, a funeral will be to-morrow. 

The business world now speaks ; prices have ad- 
vanced ; great fortunes are won and lost. The trained 
ear of the operator brings all this ceaseless clatter into 
contact with the mind and translates it into pages of 
manuscript, into columns for the newspaper, into useful 



128 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



information for the present, stories of the past and 
promises for the future. 

The world is a great sounding apparatus, each thing 
has its own significant voice. The sky reverberates 
with thunder. The mountains echo. The seas roar. 
The brooks murmur. The winds sigh. The wild beast 
howls. The birds sing. The reptile hisses. The ma- 
chinery hums. The car rattles and the human vocab- 
ulary has more than one hundred thousand spoken 
words. 

To the infantile ear these voices are unintelligible and 
terrifying. They startle, alarm and bewilder the child 
because they are not understood. But to the educated 
ear every sound is significant and full of meaning. To 
those who are able to understand their voices, day unto 
day uttereth speech, and night unto night teacheth 
knowledge, their words have gone to the end of the 
world and there is no place where their language 
is not heard. The world is thrice known to the 
educated — once by sight, once by touch and once by 
sound. By long association the adult has become 
familiar with these sounds and recognizes the meaning 
and voice of each. One voice is the chirp of the cricket, 
one the cooing of the dove. Another voice is the bark 
of old Tray, the family dog ; another the neighing of 
Tom, the family horse. That great sighing giant with 
out reaching arms and bushy head is a branching tree 
shaken by the wind. That sharp, rasping voice is a 
katydid concealed in the grass and calling for its mate. 
That flying monster, rumbling, rattling and screeching 
in a most terrific way is a train of cars bringing a dear 



SKLF-KDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 129 

and expected friend. Grown-up folks not only know 
those dear to them by the sound of their voice but even 
by their foot-falls. By long acquaintance many of those 
voices have become companionable, suggestive of pleas- 
ant memories and sweet associations. They are won- 
derfully full of meaning. They are vocal with friend- 
ship ties, romances, poems, history and a thousand pre- 
cious memories. 

But to the untrained ear of the infant these sounds 
are all chaotic and insignificant. Being destitute of 
meaning they only serve to startle and terrify. They 
excite the instinct of self-preservation and suggest the 
presence of danger. 

And with all, what vociferous creatures children are. 
Noise to the little folks is both a centripetal and centri- 
fugal force. It attracts and repels, alarms and delights. 
The child is terrified by an unfamiliar sound and yet 
noise is his most stimulating and entertaining amuse- 
ment. Some infants cry by the hour for the pleasure 
of hearing their own voice. 

The period of destructive play is also the period 
when children are habitually noisy. The little destroyer 
yells, screams, rattles and mimics every sound. He 
relishes a bedlam of noise as much as he he relishes 
food. His hooting, tooting creates a confusion of 
sound so fearfully confounded that older people are 
compelled to put cotton in their ears, and when asked 
how they like children, answer in the language of the 
cynical and stammering Charles Lamb, " I like 'em 
b-b-boiled " ! Destructive play is the first form of con- 
structive activity. Breaking things is a form of infan- 



130 CHILD - PLAY, OR 



tile activity which eventually grows into making 
things. In like manner these crude and disagreeable 
noises are the first step in self-education of the ear. 
The noisy child is unconsciously training himself to 
distinguished sound. The sense of hearing like every 
other faculty grows by exercise, and grows in the 
direction it is exercised. 

With the blind the sense of hearing and touch is 
keener and more discriminating because it is more 
exercised. A farmer's child blind from birth, at an 
early age became very much interested in the stock and 
was especially fond of the poultry. He knew each of 
the animals on the farm and most of the chickens by 
name and voice. He was exceedingly skilled in finding 
nests and collecting eggs. When he heard a hen 
cackle, he knew what hen it was, what direction and 
how distant. And knowing every inch of the sur- 
rounding ground he would go straight as an arrow to 
the spot and get the egg. 

Dr. Syms tells us a blind boy in England associated 
with playmates whose daily amusement was shooting 
with bow and arrow. The sightless little fellow, aspir- 
ing to be an archer too, educated his ear to locate 
direction and distance with such precision that if 
another boy tapped on a target this blind child guided 
by the sound could pierce with his arrow the center of 
the target everytime. 

This story seems incredible. And yet every child's 
ear is trained to skill as remarkable as this. It is even 
a greater achievement to catch the meaning and distin- 
guish the different word-sounds used in common con- 



SELF -EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 131 



versation. For one moment consider what an amazing, 
bewildering variety of sounds mingle and flow together 
in the many thousand words used in daily conversation. 
Persons speaking in an unknown tongue appear to 
speak so rapidly and their words seem like a constant 
repetition of the same sound. To learn to distinguish 
each tone, and read a distinct meaning in each word, is 
an oral achievement almost miraculous. Only those 
know what a task it is who have tried to learn a foreign 
language. And yet each six-year-old child has uncon- 
sciously trained his ear to distinguish three hundred or 
four hundred of these word-sounds and give a distinct 
meaning to each. 

The child is a noise-loving and noise-making little 
animal. But this constant vociferation is not a wasted 
energy or an annoyance that could be eliminated from 
the child's life without serious loss to himself. Every 
rattle, rumble and rustle, every yell and scream is a 
lesson in acoustics, and has its effects in revealing the 
world to the child's ear. It is a self-education in dis- 
criminating sounds, a preliminary training essential to 
gaining command of the articulations of the human 
voice used in common conversation. 

Contrast the intelligent activity of the child of six 
years with the blank mind and helpless body of the 
child of six months, and you will realize what an 
amount of valuable knowledge and skill of eye and ear 
the child has acquired in this rude and annoying play. 
Whether vocal or manual, the first puerile efforts will 
be rude and unattractive. But he gains skill by prac- 
tice. Give the little folks a chance, be patient with 
their incomplete efforts, they will do better by and by. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



Make=Believe Play a Seif=Education of the Imagination. 

"And sometiuie for iiu hour or so 
I watched my leaden soldiers come and go, 
With different uniforms and drills, 
Among the bedclothes, through the hills. 

And sometimes sent my ships in fleets 

All up and down among the sheets, 

Or brought my trees and houses out 

And planted cities all about." — R. L. Stevenson. 

" When I was a child, I thought as a child, I understood as a 
child, I spake as a child, but when I became a man I put away 
childish things."— Paul. 

It would be difficult to overestimate the value of 
imagination as a mental faculty. Poets have dreamed 
dreams and seen visions of the horrors of a world with- 
out light ; of a world without fire ; of a world without 
water. Equally contracted, cold and barren would this 
world be to human beings without imagination. 

Imagination is the field-glass of the mind. It mag- 
nifies and completes the field of human vision. The 
natural eye sees a part and imagination completes the 
whole from hints offered by that part. The sight of a 
fallen feather fills the mind with images of a living, 
singing bird. The sight of an old heap of ruins sets 
imagination building a royal castle and weaving for it 
a romantic history. A broken, jagged piece of lava 
inspires visions of a volcano, with clouds of flame and 

133 



134 CHILD -PLAY, OB 



smoke bursting from its summit, and floods of liquid 
fire flowing down its side. 

The uses of imagination are multiplied and diversi- 
fied. While it enlarges the field of mental vision, it is 
also the creative faculty of the mind. 

Thought only becomes thought by being formed into 
mental images of things. All history, all poems, all 
theology, all scientific fact and natural law are in their 
primal conception the children of imagination. Some 
fascinating imagination kindles the mind and sets it 
burning with images which must be tested by living 
endeavor, and the intellect and hand are employed to 
try whether the fanciful forms are the real forms. 
With pen the author embodies his ideal in the written 
page. The artist with brush and paint spreads his 
ideal on the canvas. The scientist submits his ideal to 
the test of the laboratory. The Christian strives to 
live his ideal in the midst of the conflicts and tempta- 
tions of life. 

Imagination has as much to do with the creation of 
language as it has to do with writing a romance or 
painting a picture. Paintings and diagrams offer hints 
and suggestions to the eye, and from the parts imagin- 
ation constructs the whole. The spoken word oSers 
hints and suggestions to the ear. The winged word 
floats out upon the air and starts atmospheric waves, 
which, striking upon the ear, enkindle visions of a home, 
humble or elegant, and awaken memories of loved 
ones. Their forms are seen, their voices are heard as 
living realities, which neither space, nor time, nor death 
can cover from sight. Every spoken word has some 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 135 

mental image associated with it, and plumes the wings 
of fancy afresh. As the intonations of the human 
voice strike upon the ear, images of houses, Iriends, 
gardens, orchards and rippling brooks come and go. 
Not the words spoken, but the mental images awakened 
by these words, constitute the realities ot language. 

Imagination is an element of morality. It gives 
warmth and life to the social relations. The refined, 
the gentle, the sympathetic and generous are always 
possessed of vivid imagination. The cold, the selfish, 
the cruel and the criminal are unimaginative. They 
lack the creative power which puts themselves in the 
place of others. To do to others as we would have 
others do to us, we must by creative fancy put our- 
selves in their place, and learn sympathy by suffering 
in imagination what they suffer, by imagining our- 
selves tempted and tried as they are tempted and tried. 

Imagination is also the pioneer of truth. It has 
much to do with the first crude attempts at understand- 
ing the meaning and value of things. 

It has aided in discovering new countries and in per- 
fecting the map of the world. Interpreting the mean- 
ing of driftwood, washed away from some unknown 
shore, it suggested to Columbus the probability of 
unknown land beyond the unknown seas. Penetrating 
the surface of the earth, imagination laid the foundation 
of geology. To the natural eye a fossil shell or age- 
worn fragment of bone was void of interest and desti- 
tute of meaning. But these insignificant relics of other 
times carried the visionary mind of the geologist back 
into prehistoric deeps, and by the omnipotent power of 



136 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



imagination, he awakened them to life again; and with 
the omniscient eye of imagination, he saw their size, 
form, and became familiar with their habits. Time 
would fail to tell of how mythology came before his- 
tory, astrology before astonomy, alchemy before chem- 
istry, the exorcism of evil spirits before the science of 
medicine, and witchcraft before psychology. These 
creations of imagination were the dark and gruesome 
working hypothesis which set investigation going in 
search of the origin of things, which laid the founda- 
tion of modern science and culminated in the highest 
achievements of human genius. 

Imagination is an essential element of faith. It 
enlarged the vision of the ancient poets, prophets, 
apostles, and enabled them to foresee, forethink, and 
forelive in advance of their time. The great seers and 
workers of the world endured and the martyrs suffered 
"As seeing Him who is invisible." 

Reason, the discriminating faculty of the mind ; 
memory, the retentive faculty of the mind ; will, the 
executive faculty of the mind, are capable of dealing 
with cold facts when once brought to hand and laid on 
the dissecting table. But far-seeing, winged imagina- 
tion, the creative faculty of the mind, is alone capable 
of ascending into Heaven or descending into the deep 
iu search of new truths. 

A world without imagination would be a moral 
desert, and the men and women peopling it as coarse 
and cruel as wolves and bears. 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 137 

THE CHILD MIND IS THE VERY EMBODIMENT OF 
IMAGINATION. 

It is impossible to over-estimate the part imagination 
plays in the life of the adult. Older folks in that dear 
school of experience have to some degree learned to 
distinguish between their inner fancies and external 
realities. Rut after being schooled by experience, adult 
thought is still more than half imagination. The most 
careful and discriminating see and hear the expected. 
The world of each one is his own mind turned inside 
out. Where one sees beauty and order, another sees 
chaos; where one hears melody, another hears discord. 
Life is to each what his own mental condition makes it. 

If the adult mind is half imagination, the child mind 
is all imagination. 

Says Professor Sully: "One of the few things we 
seem to be certain of with respect to child nature is 
that it is fancy full. Childhood, we all know, is the age 
for dreaming, for decking out the yet unknown world 
with gay colors of imagination, for living a life of play 
or happy make-believe. So that nothing seems more 
childlike than the myth-making impulse, the overflow 
of fancy to hide the nakedness of things." 

Everything the little folks see and hear turns into 
the very thing they are thinking about. If the cup had 
once contained bitter medicine no amount of washing 
can sweeten it to the child's taste. It is still bitter. If 
the hot tongs had once burned his fingers, after a 
month's cooling they're still hot, and the slightest 
touch continues to burn him. One story slips in the 
place of another and the little victim of imagination is 



138 CHILD - PLAY, OR 



called bad names. He is willful, stubborn, learning to 
tell stories, and is cruelly punished, all because he can 
not distinguish fancy from fact. 

The infantile mind starts going on the wings of 
fancy. The child has a habit of attributing the same 
intelligence he has to all living creatures and even to 
inanimate things. A five-year-old brother and three- 
year-old sister were out walking. The great world was 
so full of novelties, they thought everything wanted to 
be out to see and enjoy its wonders. Some naughty 
pigs had been penned by the wayside. When these 
little folks peeped through the crack of the pen the 
pigs raised a clamor which to tteir imaginatve ears 
were plainly spoken words, pleading to be out. The 
gate was opened, out they went, and the garden was 
spoiled. When their mother said they ought not to 
have opened the gate, the children answered the little 
pigs said "Out," "Out," "Out." 

A mother had received a beautiful winter scene which 
was greatly admired by her child. The painting was a 
group, some in sleighs, and some on foot, going to 
church. Seeing the same picture the next morning, he 
exclaimed in surprise, " Them folks ar'nt got there yet, 
have they"? 

Those children felt how sad and dull it must be for 
pigs and pictures to be still and not see what was going 
on about them. A little girl used to pick up pebbles 
and flowers and carry them to some other place and 
then throw them down, thinking that they would be 
delighted with the change. 

Childish play is the very embodiment of the imagi- 
nation. 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 139 

THE "make-believe" IS THE PLAYTHING TURNED 
INTO THE THING THE CHILD IS THINKING ABOUT. 

Analyze the budding intellect and it will be resolved 
into three germinal faculties — memory, imagination, 
and the making impulse. 

Memory readily receives and retains perceptions of 
everything that the child sees and hears. It is not 
memory so much as the way the child has of contin- 
ually seeing and hearing what was once seen and heard. 
The ideals, or images of things seen and heard, con- 
tinue to ring in the ears and stir in the mind, and they 
are instinctively accepted as the working model of how 
things can be made ; and he goes to work to make 
them. Thus the little human being begins his career 
at once as dreamer and doer, as idealist and actor. The 
mental image no sooner enters his mind than it pulls 
the muscular trigger and sets feet and fingers going in 
constructive efforts to embody in it living forms. Why 
attempt to enumerate? He flies right into the face of 
the commandment and attempts to make the likeness 
of everything he sees in the heavens above or in the 
earth beneath. We call them " Make-believes,'' because 
they fall so far short of the living realities. These 
miserable pretences act as suggestions to the child's 
mind. 

An imaginative person by persistently gazing on a 
crystal sees his most ardent wishes coming into visible 
form. One aspiring to art, sees beautiful pictures; 
another inclined to military life, sees marching armies. 
The lover will see the object of his aSections. These 
visions often become so intensely real as to excite 



140 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



ecstacy of delight or even move to tears. Of course 
the crystal gazer only sees what is going on in his own 
mind. 

Such is the meaning of the make-believe playthings 
to the child. They are as it were crystal gazing, help- 
ing the little ones to see more clearly what is going on 
in his mind. Every passing observation awakens some 
new fancy, and the child's imaginative mind speedily 
becomes a workshop in which all the industries he ever 
saw are carried on. And the little fool of his fancies, 
seeing more with his imagination than with his eyes, 
sees in those playthings whatever he is thinking about. 
Things so substanceless to others become so real to 
him. With imagination he sharpens his saw, inks his 
pen, flies his kite, and harnesses his horse. A little 
rag-tag who had seen one gazing through a glass at the 
stars, never wearied in looking through the stub end of 
a cast-away whip to see the stars which were brilliantly 
shining in his own mind. 

The child looking inward more than outward mis- 
takes fancy for facts. His lively imagination converts 
him into a veritable wizard, and his playthings into the 
wizard's wand. The little imaginative creature has 
powers which those men and women who have put 
away childish things no longer possess. With his wiz- 
ard's wand, he daily repeats those wonders we read of 
in fairy stores. A block of wood is suggestive of a 
table only to the most vivid imagination. But he touches 
it with his magic wand, and it is immediately converted 
into an enchanted table spread with silver and china 
and covered with a sumptuous feast. With the same 



SELF -EDUCATION THROLXJII PLAY. 141 



magic wand he touches some sticks, and they, as guests 
around the table, are delighted with the good things 
they eat and drink from the empty toy dishes. If the 
boy has no painted or hair-covered, glass-eyed hobby 
horse trimmed out with saddle and bridle, a stick will 
do just as well. A touch of that wizard's wand ani- 
mates the stick with life and converts it into a prancing 
steed, an iron gray for all the world like his father's. 

There is no end to the fantastic power of this wizard's 
wand. It has the power of transforming all his sur- 
roundings into the very thing the child is thinking 
about. It fills an empty cup, and he drinks from it and 
invites his friends to drink. It converts a bit of rope 
with a frayed end into paint and brush, and he, master 
of one of the fine arts, spends hour after hour painting 
the furniture, painting landscapes and portraits or what- 
ever comes into his mind. 

The child has the faculty of putting his playthings, 
as it were, into a kaleidoscope, and each new turn of 
fancy transforms the toy into something entirely new. 

A child had his home on a farm near the seashore. 
Playing farming was at first his chief occupation. An 
old cast-off tin pan was metamorphosed into a farm 
wagon, and he busied himself hauling fodder for his 
numerous fine cattle. One day his father took him to 
the city, and during the journey he got a taste of rail- 
road life. This forever spoiled the youngster for farm- 
ing. After that country life was altogether too common- 
place, and he wanted something more exciting— some- 
thing which would give to him an opportunity to go 
from city to city and come in contact with the world. 



142 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



With a touch of his wizard wand he now converted his 
farm wagon into a train of cars, his farm road across 
the nursery into a railroad and himself into the conduc- 
tor. And for a time he lived a brilliant career as rail- 
road manager. 

His next trip was a brief sea voyage. After that rail- 
roading was altogether too monotonous for his romantic 
taste. As soon as home, the tin pan underwent another 
transformation and became an ocean steamer. The 
foundation was taken from under his railroad and it 
dropped down into ocean ; and the same sticks that 
used to be good fodder for his cattle now became sailors 
obedient to his will in managing his ship. 

His whole surroundings were always obedient to the 
will of the little wizard and were converted at pleasure 
into everything he wished them to be. He was daily 
and hourly living in an enchanted world, realizing all 
those wonderful transformations we read of in fairy 
stories ; all as real to his vivid, childish imagination as 
tin pans, sticks, empty cups, frayed bits of rope and rag 
dolls are to those grown up folks who, in putting away 
childish things, put away the child's manner of looking 
at the world. To those grown up folks it is utterly in- 
credible how the stupid little thing could indulge such 
nonsense. 

We unbelieving adults are cruel enough to laugh at 
those childish illusions. Our unsympathetic criticisms 
cut the little ones to the quick, and they give vent to 
their wounded feelings in violent language and tears. 
They never forget those who have ridiculed their plays 
as silly, and if those who once tormented them dare to 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 143 

invade their playgrounds again, the spiteful little things 
will fly at them like hornets defending their nests. 

We do not realize what ruin our unfriendly criticisms 
have wrought. It for the time being breaks the magic 
wand, disenchants their fairy land, and their beautiful 
creations fall into the commonplace things they actually 
are. That wand had converted a raveled, banged and 
dirty rag doll into a Cinderella, with all her grace and 
beauty and equipage, but now the spell is broken, the 
glass slippers fall from Cinderella's feet, her seven 
steeds are turned into a dead mouse, her coachmen into 
few decayed sticks, her silken robes go back into the 
torn and dirty rags from which they were originally 
made, and Cinderella herself, poor thing ! is only a wisp 
of cloth with a string about it, suggestive of a doll's 
waist 

We look with amazement at the little fancy-bound 
prodigal reveling in his illusions. But Dame Nature is 
working another miracle. She is assigning another 
branch of instruction in that self-taught school of juve- 
niles. The child's interest in these make-believes is 
his first step into a practical knowledge of the world's 
solid realities. Nature is teaching the little magician 
how to convert fancy into fact ; how to convert air cas- 
tles into stone castles; how all things can be done ac- 
cording to the patterns shown him in his mind. This 
image-making power of the mind is never entirely inde- 
pendent of suggestion. It never makes something out 
of nothing. But, oh ! it can make so much out of little. 
It gilds the common place with glitter and gold. It 
endows inert matter with the warmth of life and love. 



144 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



Among the child's earliest observations is that of per- 
son — mother, sister or brother ; and the doll is the em- 
bodiment of that person. The little one's interest in 
the doll is not the instinct of motherhood, it is the in- 
stinct of romancing. 

The inborn disposition to personify, always strong in 
human nature, finds chief delight in creating fictitious 
persons and characters, such as figures in novels. This 
devotion to romance, prominent in all ages and among 
all people, was especially indulged by the childhood of 
the race. The oldest literature in the world are the 
fairy stories, and it may be added the most enduring. 
For the fairy story is born afresh in the mind of each 
new born child, and starts into spontaneous operation 
as the first full blown impulse of every unfolding mind. 

Each mind knows and kindles at its own. The first 
and most entertaining story to the little one is the fairy 
story. Unfettered by ideas of fixed identity, the little 
ones teases to be told over and over again of beasts, 
of birds, fishes and even of trees being turned into fairy 
queens or beautiful princes going about and doing won- 
derful things. These stories fit into the child's way of 
thinking and express methods of thought already brew- 
ing in the infantile mind. 

Beyond doubt, the doll is one of those fairy crea- 
tures. Each doll has a double personality ; one the 
miserable pretense which older folks see ; the other 
somebody which the child knows and loves. The child 
loves that person by loving and caressing the doll. Nor 
is this sham or pretense. 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 145 

A little girl who had been ridiculed into doubt of her 
doll actually became skeptical of her own existence, and 
dolefully inquired, " Mamma, if my doll is only a pre- 
tend, am I real? " 

The instinct of novel making runs to riot in the nurs- 
ery unrestrained by any particular form of expression. 
Childhood embodies every idea in a make-believe of 
some kind, and the doll is a make-believe person. It 
stands at once for mother, father, brother, anybody, 
everybody. The doll play is in fact the nursery novel, 
the budding of romance, the first attempt at composi- 
tion and characterizing. 

The child begins with one and soon she will want a 
whole family of dolls. A little three-year-old Catherine 
has a family of seven. Each of her dolls has its own 
name ; each has its own good or bad qualities. One is 
a favorite, two are sailor boys, and one very mischiev- 
ous; one was quarrelsome and constantly imposing on 
the others. Each has and sustains its own character 
and calling. 

These doll romances on close and critical observation 
will be found to contain all the elements of the popular 
novel. Only the authors have not generally enjoyed 
the advantages of traveling a year in Europe, or of 
living a year in Paris for the purpose of studying fads 
and fashions. The nursery is the green little world from 
which these green little romancers are compelled to 
copy and borrow. The plot is not artistic, because the 
little authors have not yet become artful. 

These doll characters have mumps, measels, croup 
and trouble getting their teeth, just such troubles as 



146 CHILD - PLAY, OR 



little children have. Like other little folks these dolls 
ramble about the neighborhood. They occupy their 
time in dressing, visiting, dining and gossiping. They 
tell strange stories and indulge in doubtful and daring 
amusements. They have odd incidents in their lives; 
but they themselves are never odd or impossible char- 
acters. These dolls talk, and their talk is often dull, 
but never tedious to weariness. They have no foreign 
brogue or provincial dialect, stammered, aired and 
drawn out to disgust, as the adult make-believes indulge. 
These dolls marry and have children, and are killed off 
in a cold blooded way, very much after the fashion of 
the adult novelist. But they never fall in love, flirt, get 
jealous, fight duels and kill one another; they never get 
separated by some fearfully insurmountable obstacle, 
as one more proof and example that the course of true 
love never does run smooth, and then finally ends with 
one more proof and example that the dreadfully insur- 
mountable obstacle was not insurmountable at all. Doll 
novels are true to child nature. 

The dolls grow and change character as the little 
players grow and change character. The small doll is 
never artificial, affected or aristocratic, but it sometimes 
grows priggish and ambitious. 

Doll play is the child's ideal of social and domestic 
life, constructed into make-believe persons. Doll play- 
ing is the nursery world and neighborhood world in 
miniature. The child novelist and the adult novelist 
alike impersonate their own experience and their own 
acquaintances; and alike with both, the make-believe 
person is often very transparent. The doll's churchly 



SELF- EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 147 

habits are theater going habits, so kind and good, or so 
cross and inclined to whip, makes the observer believe 
that it is the mother stuffed with bran and dressed in 
doll's clothes, just as David Copperfield and Micawber 
make the reader believe that David is Charles Dickens 
himself, and Micawber Charles Dickens' father. 

This play at personification can be drawn out to any 
extent and used in portraying things, shallow or pro- 
found. 

The girl grows, her mind unfolds and the intellect is 
seized with ideals of person or character more perfect 
than any known among her acquaintances. She now 
abandons the doll, takes her pen and tries her hand at 
composition. She collects and unites all the delightful 
remembrances of personal appearance, conduct and 
character in one person, the hero of her story. And the 
dear little tyro, reading her jumbled up mass of words 
and bad grammar with the eyes of her imagination 
more than with the eyes of a critic, sees in her story her 
highest ideal of the beautiful and artistic. 

The boy goes to school and there the game of ball is 
the popular amusement. Visions of what a great thing 
it is to be champion ball player seizes his mind. He 
now aspires to be the hero of his own story. He wants 
to be it and do it himself And still his imagination 
outstrips his deeds so far that he appears to his friends 
to be an intolerable braggadocio. Others see his awk- 
wardness in the game ; he himself only sees the splen- 
did hit that he intended to make. He, looking inward, 
sees his ideals ; others see his failures. 



148 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



Playing at personifying ideals and embodying imag- 
inations is at once nature's method for the self-education 
of the child and the self-advancement of the race. 

There is a doll-baby period to everything. Man- 
hood's highest achievement in art and science is but 
childhood's play grown to maturity. Bacon, with his 
keen generalizing eye, saw the work of the human 
mind forming one unbroken chain from the first bud- 
ding of infantile impulse to the most complicated 
inventions of genius ; and then in wisdom even more 
profound he saw the creations of human genius but 
another form of divine creation, and capped the climax 
by representing the discoverer of nature's secret as 
playing at the game of hide and seek with God. "As 
if, according to the innocent play of childhood, the 
Creator took delight to hide His work to the end that 
human ingenuity might find them out, and man can 
have no other greater honor than to be God's play- 
fellow in the game of discovering new and useful 
tilings." 

George McDonald, commenting on this thought of 
Bacon, represents the different forms of human activity, 
such as childish play, religious faith, and scientific pur- 
suits as so many different stages in this game at hide 
and seek played between God and man. Says he, "All 
are play-fellows with God in this game. The little ones 
gather daisies and chase painted butterflies. The chil- 
dren of the kingdom admire the lilies and observe the 
provisions made for the birds and gather faith from 
their observations, as the birds in winter gather as food 
the ruddy fruit from the leafless branches of the haw- 
thorn. 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 149 

The men of science 

May sit and rightly spell 

Of every star that heaven doth show 

And of everj' herb that sips the dew 

Till old experience do attain 

To something like prophetic strain." 

There is a doll-baby period to everything, to discov- 
ery, to science, to literature. The child's make-believe 
has grown into the labratory of the philosopher, the 
crucible of the chemist, the microscope of the natural- 
ist, the telescope of the astronomer, and the volume of 
the poet and historian. 

The childhood of the race slipping off of the lap of 
mother nature, stepping out of doors into the world, 
stepping out of the nursery into the universe, took that 
greatest step possible to man. And as soon as out into 
the wide world these first born children of mankind 
impelled by the instincts of inborn human nature 
began to play explore the world, to play power over 
nature. Their first attempts at understanding the 
world was so rude and imaginative. Their first effort 
at gaining power over the elements of nature fell so far 
short of what was attempted that they were only child- 
ish make-believes on a larger scale. Just as the boy 
constructs a stick into an imaginary horse, or a cup into 
an imaginary ocean steamer, in like manner the child- 
hood of the race personified all the elements and forces 
of nature, converting the sky, the sun, the wind, the 
clouds, and the seasons into elemental dolls or elemental 
make-believes. 

The sun was Apollo the beautiful young hunter, and 
the far-darting sunbeams were his arrows. These 



150 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



child-men played as many changes on the wind as an 
imaginative boy ever played on a toy. At one time the 
rattling wind was men talking together. At another, 
the wind was warriors rattling their spears; again it 
was Hermes with winged sandals crawling through the 
key-hole into people's houses, stealing family secrets 
and playing some cunning trick ; again the moaning 
wind was Orpheus, with his magic song, causing trees 
and shrubs to bend with admiration. The storm-wind 
finally became Mars the god of war. The drouth was a 
serpent stealing the clouds and drinking the moisture. 
The thunder was the rain-god killing the serpent and 
setting the water free. The clouds were cows or spotted 
deer and the rain was their rich milk. The sky was an 
old man with long blue cloak and broad-brimmed hat. 
The dawn was Juno the vixen-wife of Jupiter; or 
according to another fancy, the early morning was 
Minerva awakening men refreshed with sleep and 
inspiring their minds with hope and better thoughts. 
Hence this personification of the dawn known as 
Minerva was worshipped as the godess of arts and the 
patron of human industry. The course of the year 
with its twelve months was a cruel mother killing her 
twelve children. The rainbow, quickly coming and 
going between heaven and earth, was the beautiful 
messenger of the gods. 

The natural force and phenomena personified as 
make-believes of the childhood of the race became 
nature deified. The friendly forces becoming gods, the 
hostile and destructive elements becoming demons or 
devils. 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 151 

Natural phenomena, personified as the child's make- 
believe way of thinking of common things, soon slipped 
away from its original meaning and became the super- 
natural or mythical creations, just as if the toy-doll had 
come to be regarded as a real person, or the toy-horse a 
real horse. Myths are the mummy dolls of the child- 
hood of the race, elemental make believes. The nat- 
ural history of these elemental dolls grew with the 
growth of language, changed form with all the changes 
of language, died in the death of old languages and 
came to life in the growth of new languages until they 
became those dark riddles and enigmatical stories which 
blot and blurred the pages of ancient history; "stories 
too wonderful to be true of men and too blasphemous 
to be true of the gods"; "strange stories of a strange 
past which never was a present." 

There is no better way to understand those ancient 
mythical histories and religions than to substitute the 
childhood of the individual in place of the childhood of 
the race and the make-believe of the individual child- 
hood for the ancient mythical period. 

As in the childhood of the individual, so in the child- 
hood of the race, imagination was first evoked to 
interpret the sights and sounds in nature. There was 
a make-believe period to all of the arts and sciences. 
Astrology came before astronomy, alchemy came before 
chemistry, witchcraft before psychology, illusions 
before demonstrated fact. As soon as an interest is 
awakened in a new thing, imagination goes to work to 
construct a make-believe. The child mind of the race 
like that of the individual, as naturally evolves the myth- 
making impulse as the bud evolves leaves. 



152 CHILD - PLAY, OR 



ASTROLOGY AND MAPPING OUT THE HEAVENS IN THE 
FIGURES OF ANIMALS WAS THE DOLL-BABY PERIOD 
OF ASTRONOMY. 

The geography of the starry heavens mapped out in 
figures of beasts, birds and reptiles, beyond a doubt, is 
the oldest surviving work of the human mind, and is 
certainly the most imaginary. From beginning to end 
it is a fantastic creation without the shadow of a reality. 

Keeping flocks was the oldest human industry, and 
the shepherd's life led to the discovery of the motion of 
the heavenly bodies. 

The Nomads guarding their flocks by night from 
beasts of prey, or leading them out before the earliest 
dawn to get the benefit of the dewy grass, naturally 
gazed at the stars and noticed their rising in the east 
and sinking in the west, and learned how they served 
as a heavenly dial to indicate the hour of the night. 
Especially did they fix their attention on that luminous 
group which first grew pale before the rising sun. Very 
soon they would learn that its relation to day and night 
was constantly changing. During one month the sun 
was observed to rise in one starry cluster, the next 
month in another, until the whole circuit of the heavens 
was measured by his yearly course. It was also ob- 
served that the changing seasons answered to the 
changing stars. The bright orb of day rising in one 
constellation marked the end of the summer ; in another 
the falling of the withered leaves ; in another the copious 
down-pour of the sky; in another the awakening of the 
bud and bloom of spring ; in another the ripening of 
the harvest. And thus, as the sun each month burst 



SELF -EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 163 



forth from a new cluster of stars, it brought forth a cor- 
responding change of the weather and in the products 
of the earth. One group of stars joined with the sun, 
earth became a garden plot, another made it a desert 
spot. 

The first-born children of mankind had a child's way 
of explaining those changes which are constantly occur- 
ring on the earth. The stars did it. These stars were 
great, overpowering, living creatures. Some of them 
were as beneficent as they were beautiful ; others were 
cruel and caused disaster and death. The stars, in the 
estimation of those simple-minded children of nature, 
controlled all the affairs of earth and were the cause of 
good and evil, cold and heat, growth and decay, life, 
disease and death. The star under which an individual 
was born was thought to determine his destiny, to make 
him fortunate or unfortunate, long or short-lived. The 
astrologer who interpreted the effect of these stars on 
human affairs was esteemed the greatest and most use- 
ful man on earth. None would dare to begin a work, 
go on a journey or declare war without consulting the 
astrologer to know whether an evil or good star was in 
the ascendant. 

Some way must be contrived to distinguish the evil 
and good stars by name, so as to know just what to ex- 
pect of each. Their vocabulary was limited ; and like 
infant children they used such words as they had at 
command, and called many things by the same name. 
Their pastures not only grew flocks and herds, but lit- 
erally grew their vocabulary as well ; and the same 
names by which they distinguished the blasts of the 



154 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



field, by metaphor were used to distinguish the stars. 
The good star they called by the name of a good man, 
or after the name of some useful and harmless animal. 
The evil star they called by the name of some wild, 
savage animal or poisonous reptile. Thus the names 
of the constellations were first chosen to distinguish the 
character or effect of those starry groups without a ref- 
erence to resemblance between the star cluster and the 
beast after which it was named ; the resemblance was 
in disposition, not in form. 

Not every starry group, but the constellation rising 
with the sun, in their eetimation, chiefly controlled the 
events of earth and the destiny of men. The posi- 
tion of the sun in the constellation was spoken of as the 
sign in the head, in the heart, in the legs and other parts 
of the body. 

Here is the origin of those signs recorded in the 
almanac for the benefit of those who wish to build, 
plant or go on a journey when the sign is in any partic- 
ular portion of the body. 

If a group of stars rising with the sun brought the 
friendly forces of nature into active operation, it was 
called by the name of some useful domestic animal. 
But if the first appearance of this cluster of stars rising 
with the sun was accompanied by destructive heat, 
drought or storm, it is called by the name of some 
vicious wild beast. The starry cluster whose conjunc- 
tion with the sun was supposed to bring rain, of course 
would be a water animal, and was called the "Dolphin." 
Another group in conjunction with the sun in early 
spring when nature was most prolific with the birth of 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 155 

vegetable and animal life, was called "Gemini" (twins). 
For the same reason "Virgo," the full-breasted virgin, 
is seen in the sky when the beauty and bloom of early 
summer are most attractive. As the advancing season 
becomes more inclement those beautiful and harmless 
creatures give place to wild animals and poisonous 
reptiles. The sky is occupied by the lion when the 
summer heat rages and the storms grow furious. The 
great bear of devouring cold dwells in the sky over- 
hanging the arctic regions. The deadly scorpion next 
the icy pole exerts its baleful influence in those regions 
of eternal barrenness and death. 

A dark hostile power, the most terrible known to 
man, the very embodiment of disorder and death, dwelt 
in those stars which rose with the sun at the Autumnal 
Equinox. The evil spirit inhabiting these stars at 
once gained dominion over Nature and began his work 
of destruction. He stole the clouds and drank the 
moisture from them. The rains ceased. The revivify- 
ing sun of spring was converted into a fiery orb and his 
burning rays killed all growing vegetation, while the 
poisonous breath of this wicked star spirit brought 
famine, pestilence and death to man and beast. This 
great destroyer of human comfort must have a name, and 
was called "Ahi," (the serpent or satan which invaded 
the Garden of Eden procuring the fall of man, and later 
known as Scorpio, the autumnal sign of the zodiac). 

All these changes in nature were, in the estimation 
of the childhood of the race, caused by the stars or 
the creatures which dwelt within the stars. Their 
diflferent names were chosen as significant of the good 



156 CHILD -PliAY, OR 



done by the good stars or of the disaster wrought by 
the evil stars, and all without any reference to the form 
or figure of the starry group. 

But no creation of fancy ever could be suspended in 
this unfinished form. A foundation laid, imagination 
always completes the building, A seed planted, im- 
agination always grows it into a tree. Those names 
given, there must be a living creature answering to the 
name ; and now a resemblance must be found between 
each starry cluster and the name it bears. And later 
fancy completed the work by rejecting one star and 
choosing another in order to conjure up an imaginary 
resemblance. Here is the origin of the starry figures 
which straggle so strangely over the map of the 
heavens. In this way the whole starry heavens were 
peopled with men, women, horses, lions, bears, wolves, 
birds and reptiles. Where we would formulate a scien- 
tific statement, they formed an elemental personification 
and called it by some name expressive of its supposed 
effect on the earth. So far as similitude is concerned the 
starry groups looked just as much like anything else as 
the creatures whose names they bear. The northern 
bear makes a fairly good "dipper," but it requires the 
most imaginative to see where the "bear" comes in. 
"Scorpio" could have wriggled into a hundred other 
positions as well as the one he now occupies. And 
modern star-gazers insist that ''Orion" looks more like 
a chair turned over than a lion-killer. It is all from 
beginning to end a monumental example of childish 
fancy. Investing the stars with this imaginary power 
of doing us good or harm seems so much like the 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 157 



child's play investing a stick with the attributes of a 
horse and galloping away upon it, or making pebbles 
into dry goods, live stock, or anything pure immagina- 
tion may choose to call them. One is the play of the 
childhood of the race ; the other the play of the indi- 
vidual child, and both are one, namely, fancy striving 
to embody itself in fact. Such erratic wanderings of 
imagination certainly tell the story of its marvelous 
creative powers, and vindicate the doctrine that man is 
born to be his own maker and the maker of the world. 

LITERATURE HAD ITS MAKE-BELIEVE PERIOD. 

The primitive man who formed the first beginning of 
our language and literature was a new being in a new 
world. He had a to-morrow but no yesterday. A 
present and future but no past. The first born of his 
kind, he had everything to create and nothing to 
inherit. He must teach his children what no earthly 
parent ever taught him— to understand the wonders of 
nature and to communicate his thought and informa- 
tion to others. 

But how make a beginning? Nature endowed this 
child-man with keen observation and a lively imagina- 
tion, such as the childhood of to-day possess. His 
mode of life brought him face to face with the elements 
of nature in their primal form. What if the world was 
full of unexplained and unnamed wonders. This born 
philosopher would instinctively set himself to the task 
of understanding and finding names for these wonders. 
Where we have facts, he had imagination ; where we 
formulate scientific terms, he formed an elemental 



158 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



make-believe — older people's make-believes are called 
personification. Some of these elemental forces like 
some of the beasts of the field were friendly and admin- 
istered to human comfort ; others like the wild beasts 
were unfriendly and did harm. Where animate and 
inanimate things produced like good or like harm both 
were called by one name. The genial element by some 
human name or the name of some domestic animal; 
the hostile element by the name of some wild animal. 

Consequently these make-believes were not only pro- 
jected on the sky as names for the starry constellation, 
but the heavens, the earth, the sea, and the dry land 
were peopled with hosts of elemental gods and demons, 
with elemental men and women, with elemental beasts 
and dragons. What we called the force of nature, 
primitive man called a god, a demon, a beast, a super- 
natural man or woman. What we would speak of as 
affinity, cause and effect, they spoke of as love, marri- 
age and bearing children. 

Homer's Iliad affords a sublime example of the 
make-believe in literature and of the power of the 
imagination in those far-off"lands and times. The gods, 
heroes and lovers of the Iliad are doll-baby gods, heroes 
and lovers manufactured out of the elemental forces of 
nature. Jupiter is the sky, Apollo the sun, Mars the 
storm wind, Eris, messenger of the gods, the rain- 
bow. Thus each element of nature is described as a 
god, a goddess, a man or a beast, and invested with 
human or brute passions. They are full of cunning 
and intrigue ; they are jealous ; they love, hate, marry 
and bear children. 



SKLF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 159 

The elements in soul-distressing battle were fighting 
continually — cold against heat; winter against summer ; 
drought against shower ; light against darkness ; death 
against life. These opposing forces were personified 
into make-believe gods, heroes, dragons, and other 
mythical creatures, and run into stories of fearful war. 
When a friendly force gained a victory over an 
unfriendly force, like the sun of spring dissipating the 
frost of winter, it was spoken of as a war or a hero 
killing a dragon. The story of Cadmus killing the 
dragon finds its interpretation in the rain storm over- 
coming the ravages of drought. 

The unceasing conflict between day and night made 
a deep impression on the mind of the childhood of 
the race. 

On one side the bright powers were as beneficent as 
they were glorious ; on the other side the dark powers 
were cruel and treacherous. Stories of this unending 
duel between day and night, stories as old as the dawn 
of imagination lay at the foundation of the Iliad. 
These difierent elemental personifications are the char- 
acters^coined into the story of the Siege of Troy. The 
darkness producing elements were personified as Tro- 
jans or the children of the night. The light-bearing 
elements as the Hellenes, or children of the day. 

The ruins of an old city called Troy enkindled the 
fancy of Homer, and he collected those stories and 
wove them into the romance of the siege of Troy. But 
the real Troy is the night or City of Darkness. Priam, 
the King of Troy, is the King of Darkness. Helos is 
the sun. Punning on this, Helios is the land of the 



I6f) CHILD - PLAY, OK 



sun. The Hellenes, children of the sun or children of 
light. Helen, whose abduction causes the Trojan war, 
is the Dawn, wife of the sun. Paris is the first shades 
of the night, whose evening beauty is that of a Satan 
transformed into an angel of light, but who will soon be 
enveloped in darkness. Paris, by fair speeches and 
honeyed words, beguiles Helen, wife of the sun, and 
carries her and all her treasures away to his own home, 
the Darkness of the Night. 

This temptation and fall is followed by its merited 
punishment. The Hellenes, children of the light, rise 
as one man to recover their dishonored queen and wreak 
vengeance on this young prince of darkness. Hence 
the Trojan war and its story, at once the enigma and 
admiration of the world. The conflict between light 
and darkness is the basis on which is erected this great 
superstructure of fiction. The site of Troy, the myth- 
ical city of darkness, is the region of space. It was 
located on the streams of that mythical sea, the sky- 
ocean. The beautiful streams, Seamander and Simois, 
which watered the suburbs, are sky-rivers. The celes- 
tial luminaries, like ships sailing over these heavenly 
waters, collected material from all parts of the universe 
for assaulting the dark palace of Priam, King of Night. 
From every phase and phenomena of the revolving 
heaven a god or goddess, a hero or lover steps forth to 
act his or her part in this unending duel between day 
and night. 

The nocturnal appearances, the evening shadows, the 
clouds, the storm-winds and all that make darkness are 
allied with the Trojans, the Army of Night. 



SELF -EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 161 

The solar phenomena, the diflferent conceptions of the 
sun, the day, the dawn, the sea, all that is bright and 
beaming, are allied with the Army of Light. 

Europa was another conception of this outspreading 
Dawn, and Europe means the Land of the Dawn. In 
like manner the self-complacent Greeks were fond of 
calling their country Helios^ the Land of the Sun, and 
themselves Hellenes^ the Children of the Sun. Hence, 
this story of the battle between Day and Night took on 
local color and became confused with Greek history. 

Scores of geographical names are incorporated into 
this story to give the idea of local habitation ; hundreds 
of historic names were imported into it to serve as pat- 
riotic defenders of its adopted country. But from be- 
ginning to end it is all a transparent war of the elements ; 
a battle between the darkness of the night and the light 
of day, amplified into the air-castle city, Troy, the ten- 
year siege being ten hours of the night ; all with no 
foundation but the vivid imagination of its author. 

Homer's Iliad was the last stage of make-believe in 
poetry and history. The players are already misses in 
short dresses, and the smaller boys in knee pants and 
suspenders, while the larger boys stand back and laugh 
in their sleeves at such silly pretenses as these gods 
and goddesses are, and indulge in skeptical remarks 
about their morals ; and these doll-gods and goddesses 
themselves are dressed in adult clothes. 

The mythical period has departed forever. Critical 
investigation and discrimination will henceforth take 
the place of imagination in poetry and history. 



CHAPTER IX. 



Song=Play a Self=Education of the Emotions. 

"There is no fitter revelation of God in nature than is found 
in the laws of sound, by which He comes into the veiy heart of 
man, even to its inmost recesses of love and adoration, and it re- 
quires only a sensitive, child-like heart to interpret this speechless 
music locked within nature as the voice of God pleading to let it 
out into music."— T. T. Hunger 

Music, as the play of emotion, clings more closely in 
all its uses to that natural activity called play than any 
other human pursuit. Although awakened by artificial 
means and applied to definite purpose, music is still the 
play of the emotions. Play and music march hand in 
hand. It matters not whether rolling from the lips in 
vocal strain, or leaping from the tightened chord, 
whether resounding from the drum, clashing in the cym- 
bal, pealing forth in trumpet blast or ascending in splen- 
dor and majesty from the organ. Music has but one 
meaning — it excites the play of the emotions. Whether 
it is pleading in prayer, weeping in compassion, sooth- 
ing sorrow, dancing in ecstacy or reveling in volup- 
tuous lust it charms because it excites that free, spon- 
taneous emotional activity so nearly akin to the play of 
childhood. 

The lower creatures evidently have their play-songs. 
Much of the bird song and insect song is a natural, spon- 
taneous vociferation : a voice play, just as the antics of 

young life are a play of the muscles. 

163 



164 CHILD -PLAY, OK 



THE ELEMENTS OF SOUND UNIVERSAL IN NATURE 
COME TO HARMONY IN MAN. 

According to an old Chaldean legend, the stars were 
the original home of music. When the new-made earth 
rose to view they sang for joy. At the close of this 
creation-anthem the mantle of song fell to earth. Since 
that time the stars have been silent, but earth, sea and 
air are a medley of incoherent and formless song ; 
everything animate and inanimate is vocal with the in- 
articulate elements of music. 

In nature these elemental sounds reverberate from 
mountain to mountain. They float upward from busy 
earth-land to cloud-land and are answered back in 
voices from the sky. The fitful wind and every break- 
ing wave rise and fall in ascending and descending 
tones and semi-tones. 

It is true we do not find in those animate things what 
may properly be called music, but only its material and 
its laws. Man is needed to evoke and arrange these 
elemental tones into harmony, for nothing is perfect 
till it is passed through his hands. He completes the 
circle of creation, and gives final and finished form to 
all things. 

It is the foundation of music, as of art, which is laid 
in nature. The fresh and delicate coloring of the 
gardens and orchards in spring, the red, green and gold 
of autumn, the subtle coming and going tints and 
shades of the rainbow, all lend their suggestions to the 
artist, who collects and arranges their colors into works 
of art. 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 165 

So the rough voices of nature, such as the whistling 
of birds, the cry of animals, the moaning of the winds, 
the murmur of the ocean and the rolling thunder have 
all been full of suggestion to the musical composer. 
With infinite pains he has subjugated and tamed those 
wild sounds, arranged them into symphonies and com- 
bined them into harmonies. 

Beyond a doubt, these voices in nature led to the in- 
vention of musical instruments. 

It is said the flute was suggested by the blowing of 
the wind across a bed of reeds ; that the tight-drawn 
sinews across a tortoise shell gave hint of the lyre ; 
that Pythagoras caught the idea of the ratio of music 
from the play of the difierent hammers on the anvil of 
the smithy. 

The Greek eye was full of art, the Greek ear was full 
of music and Greek fancy coined the elemental sounds 
into song-stories — stories which can be traced back and 
back till they are resolved into the voices of nature. To 
their lively imagination the wind was laden with song. 
The whispering breeze, the moaning wind, the rattling 
gale and howling storm was each transformed into a 
mythical songster of marvelous power. 

The musical wind in one turn of the myth is person- 
fied as the harp of Orpheus. At the charm of this 
harp beasts and birds paused to listen, trees and shrubs 
bent and the blades of grass waved in admiration ; all 
true of the singing wind. Again the same fitful wind 
is figured as Arion and his harp. 

Arion returning from Sicily, where he had amassed 
great wealth, was assaulted by robbers who conspired 



166 CHILD - PLAY, OR 



to seize his stores and cast him into the sea. Arion 
begged permission to play one plaintive tune before the 
execution of their purpose. Having done so he cast 
himself into the sea, and the dolphins charmed with the 
magic of his harp took him on their backs and carried 
him ashore. In this myth Arion is the wind. The 
waves wrecking the ship and ingulfing its cargo are the 
robbers. In passing from Sicily to Greece the storm- 
robbers often made the voyage rough and perilous. But 
reaching the land the wind grew calm and sung again. 

These and like stories show the close connection be- 
tween the music of the elements and the stringed and 
wind instruments invented by human art. Modern com- 
posers have caught the idea from the great symphonies 
of nature and made them the foundation of the opera 
and oratorio. 

Mendelssohn's oratorio of Elii'ah, the most majestic 
and soul-stirring musical drama ever composed, is from 
beginning to end a parody on wild, rough nature. The 
loud sounding thunder, the sweeping tempest, the 
earth-quake with its earth-rending shock after shock, 
the raging fire, the still, small voice, are all rendered 
into music and constitute nature's universal opera. 

But the voice of melody fell most profusely upon the 
living world. Everything that hath breath breathes it 
in song. The discordant and concordant notes are 
heard in the cry of animals, the warbling of the night- 
in-gale, the scream of the eagle, the hum of the insect, 
and above all in the natural inflection of the human 
voice. 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 167 

The rudiments of music are, in some degree, the gift 
of almost every living thing. The dog howling an ac- 
companiment to the bell is a common occurence. It 
has been thought that the bell tones are discordant 
to the sensitive canine ears, and that the doleful howl 
is a cry of pain. But the fact is, the dog is passionately 
fond of music, and the bell or other instrument sets him 
singing. His howl at the ringing of the bell is in 
reality a dog-song, his doleful whine an expression of 
canine ecstacy — an ecstacy not shared by his auditors. 
It has been suggested that " a woman has a right to 
sing base, but there are other parts she can sing better." 
Fastidious ears demand, unless the dog could sing 
better, he has no right to sing at all. But with the 
scale of his voice limited to two or three dolorous notes, 
he has sung what he could. Dogs, Darwin's "Gibbon- 
monkey, that sings several notes and occasionally hits 
an octave," the domestic cat with full octave voice, and 
the donkey with his wonderful cadence, all render 
strains melodious to their own ears. 

But these animal and bird-songs are not all for play 
and sport. These amorous tribes, like the higher circles 
of intelligence, use their musical accomplishments for 
effect. Naturalists tell us that birds and insects fall in 
love with colors, and that their beautiful decorations 
attract their mates and form the basis of conjugal ad- 
miration and attachment. Their songs, too, are doubt- 
less love-songs. It is at the mating season when they 
are most vociferous. The sweetest singer perhaps 
wins the most admirers. 



168 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



But man is pre-eminently the genius of song. He 
liberates music from the prison of nature and helps it 
to become melody in his own composition. Like 
everything else, the natural music whether by animate 
or inanimate voice, is rudimentary, and only becomes 
its full self when its sounds and laws are used by in- 
telligent men for the production of harmony, and so 
made the vehicle of emotion and thought. Birds, with 
all their sweetness and variety of song, utter only dis- 
cordant notes. The musical scale is neither in their 
ear nor song. 

But the sense of melody, with which human beings 
are endowed, accords with the natural law of vibration. 

The musical scale has two foundations, one in the 
air, the other in the human ear. And while, of all 
vocal creatures, man alone has the musical ear, he is 
also gifted with a range and modulation of voice sur- 
passing all other songsters. But more, his natural 
power of melody, as in other things, is augmented by 
his creative genius. His inventive skill has invoked 
the aid of vibrating metal, singing chords and moaning 
wind to join in universal chorus with nature's grand 
pan-cantata. 

THE PI.AY MOST REI.ISHED BY CHILDREN IS SONG- 
PLAY. 

Play, is the school of action, where the child instinct- 
ively takes his first lesson in all the arts. In every 
department of human industry, play is the first form of 
creative activity. If the fields under the hand of man 
yield his bread, nature inclines the child to play at 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 169 

farming that he may educate himself to become a bet- 
ter bread winner. If man's comfort demands a house 
for a shelter, nature trains the child to play with tools 
that he may become a better builder. If to adorn the 
home the artist catches one by one the fleeting lights 
and shades of field, forest and sky, and unites them 
into master-pieces of art to grace his home, nature also 
gives a child an eye to distinguish colors, and an in- 
clination to play at painting, that he, too, may one day 
be an artist. If song awakens the emotions, refreshes 
the feelings ; if it inspires purer love, loftier thoughts, 
and brings the worshiper into a closer walk with God, 
nature gives the child a love for melody, an inclination 
and ability to play at song. 

Music has always been a foremost feature in puerile 
sport. In fact the two have an affinity each for the 
other. Song naturally runs into play, and play runs 
into song. The plays most relished and most indulged 
in by children are song-plays. 

The love of music is a life-long passion. It is the 
first faculty awakened into active operation in the in- 
fant mind, and stirs the heart of the aged to the last. 
At the sixth week the infant has an ear for melody and 
is soothed and hushed by the voice of song. At a very 
tender age the babe catches the strains warbled over 
his cradle, and, repeating them, sings himself to sleep. 
The child's first spoken words are uttered in rythmic 
form : "Tata, tata," "papa, papa," "mama." It is a 
mistake to suppose these and like terms are intelli- 
gently used by the infant as names for father and 
mother. They are rythmic play of voice, the first 



170 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



Spoken words of all children in all lands and in all lan- 
guages. 

Play is the first creative utterance of life and begins 
so rude. Destructiveness is the first form of construct- 
iveness ; and hideous noises are the first attempt at 
melody ; discord the first effort at harmony. While the 
ear is yet uncultivated, the child often tries to make 
music, and finds satisfaction in the most disagreeable 
and discordant sounds. He beats Chinese marches on 
loose boards in the fence ; plays the drum by throwing 
stones against the resonant end of the barn ; rattles 
chaotic music on bones and yells and shrieks a demon- 
ical accompaniment. If fire-crackers would only hold 
out he would gladly celebrate the Fourth of July three 
hundred and sixty-five days in the year. 

The distracted mother becomes alarmed. She thinks 
her child's delight in noise an indication of unusual 
depravity, when, in reality, it is the result of an uncul- 
tivated ear. The music is in the ear ; the sweet play 
of voice in conversation, the silver tones and rounded 
periods of the orator, are all attained by careful culture 
of the ear. A dull ear betrays itself in a discordant 
voice. If the deaf continue to talk the voice-tones run 
into rasping sounds. This fact throws a flood of light 
on the problem of controlling noisy children. These 
noisy little creatures have souls full of music, but ears 
full of discord. Bring music into the home ; encourage 
participation in those sweet rhyming play songs ; have 
the children play with the piano before they are able to 
play tunes ; teach them to run the scale ; get the ear 
trained to a preception of harmony of sound and the 



SELF -EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 171 



voice to melody. This will do more to hush their 
noise than a hundred lectures on order, or a thousand 
commands, " keep still !" ** Don't be so noisy !" 

To realize how fond the child is of music and how 
fertile his inventive genius, go with him through field 
or forest. The most unmusical boy will, in one sum- 
mer day invent a dozen different kinds of musical in- 
struments. He whistles his extemporized music on 
blades of grass, on the edges of leaves, sings and 
whistles without grass or leaves, or without even the 
slightest approach to a tune. He rattles bones, makes 
wind instruments out of straws and the hollow stems of 
pumkin leaves, contrives willow pipes, paper bazoos, 
and an endless variety of sounding things unknown to 
history. 

Juvenile musical prodigies are more common than 
any other form of precocity. How many of those little 
folks, without any instruction whatever, become ex- 
perts on jews-harps and mouth-harps. Little girls 
become noted as soloists while singing to their dolls. 

Mozart, from the cradle up, was famous for mirth and 
music. At the age of four he composed tunes ; at the 
age of twelve his equal on the harpsichord could not be 
found. The professors of Europe stood aghast at the 
boy who improvised fugues, played hobby-horse and 
rode astride his father's cane. 

Music mingles with all juvenile sports. The child- 
ish plays most relished and indulged are those set to 
song. Many of the nursery songs, so familiar to the 
children of our day, have come down to us from the 
remotest antiquity and have been played over and over 



172 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



again in the nurseries of all ages and all lands. Other 
forms of puerile sports are transient, but the music-play 
never dies. 

The first infantile lessons are set to song and rhyme 
as the surest method of catching the attention and im- 
pressing the infantile mind. Froebel made this fact the 
foundation of the kindergarten school. His stories for 
children are all song-stories. He puts the melody of 
music into all the lessons and industries of life. What 
more charming than his carpenter song: 

" Zish! zish ! zish ! 

The joiner works his plane. 
Joiner, plane the table flat ; 
Leave no holes, be sure of that. 
Zish ! zish ! zish ! 
Hear the joiner's plane. 

Long strokes send 

Straight from end to end ; 

Working always with the grain, 

Forward, then back again, 

Long strokes send, 

Plane the bench, my friend." 

Songs like this, sung and acted in concert, serves the 
double purpose of inspiring the child with ideas of 
mechanical skill, and also applies the smoothening 
plane to the little one's habits and manners. Obedience 
to the laws of harmony leads to conformity to all the 
laws pertaining to our well-being. Plato appreciated 
this fact when he recommended that music should be 
introduced into the juvenile amusements of the Greek 
children. Said he, " from the first years the play of chil- 
dren ought to be subjected to the laws of harmony, for if 
the plays, and those who take part in them, are arbitrary 
and lawless how can those children ever become vir- 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 173 

tuous or obedient to law. But if, on the contrary, chil- 
dren are trained to submit to the laws of music in their 
play, the love of law enters their souls with the music 
accompanying their games, it never leaves them and 
helps them in their development." 

Froebel repeats and emphasizes the same idea. He 
says, " We ourselves have observed the eflfect of rythmic 
movements in the developments of the child. By this 
method much wilfulness, impropriety and coarseness 
would be taken out of his movements and actions ; he 
would receive more firmness and moderation, more 
honesty, and later on he would be developed into higher 
appreciation of the nature of music and poetry." 

The power of music to inspire the mind, excite the 
emotions and control the action of men is illustrated in 
its eflfect on the army. The sound of fife and drum 
takes possession of the mind and heart of the soldiers, 
and ten thousand men obedient to their notes, move as 
one man. 

Wise and kind the providence which so united the 
child's sports with song. Under the seraphic touch of 
David's harp, the demented Saul's " heart was refreshed 
and the evil spirit departed." Under the power of 
music George III of England was cured of fits of 
melancholy and restored to peace and general content- 
ment. While melody casts the evil spirits out of adults 
it sweetens the temper of the child and inclines him to 
be amiable and afifectionate. This ravishing instru- 
ment of pleasure also has a bracing eflfect on the intel- 
lect. It recreates the feelings ; it enkindles the imagi- 
nation, and through the emotions inspires the poetic 



174 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



sentiment. Different kinds of music produce different 
effects. Martial music excites the hands to war. Plain- 
tive music stirs the soul with feelings of pity. Sacred 
music inspires the emotion of piety and worship. 
Antiquarians tell us that music, dancing and poetry 
were originally one. 

When the homes and pastures of the early races were 
invaded, music and dancing were used to excite the 
courage need to expel the foe. The war-dance was 
timed to the trumpet's blast. The war proclamation 
rhymed with the martial music. As the dance contin- 
ued they became more and more enraged. The angry 
mind, the music, the vehement war-dance, and the 
excited war speech all fell into the same wild and pas- 
sionate measure. In rhythmic strains the infuriated 
leaders eulogized the nobility of valor and the glory of 
victory with such ardor, that their followers were trans- 
formed into sparks of celestial fire for the destruction 
of their foes. 

Such was also the origin of sacred poetry. When 
devotional thought was wanted, and the dull soul 
would neither fly nor go, it was customary for the 
child-man to lay aside the trumpet and bring the harp 
and dance into requisition. The holy dance accom- 
panying this music was not the graceful attitude and 
motion of the limbs called dancing now. The whole 
body was swirled and swayed in a wild rhythmic man- 
ner. Round and round the dancer spun in the mystic 
circle till he was filled with the emotion he sought. 
Music, mind and body all moved in obedience to the 
same measure. The poetry was the measured utter- 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 175 

ances inspired and expressed under the stimulating 
eflfect of the music and the dance. 

Music lends itself to every feeling, but in religious 
feeling it discloses its full power. There it is in its own 
realm. Music is for religion, and nothing calls for it 
like religion. Men fight better under the stir of music ; 
but they have fought bravely without it. Pleasure 
craves it ; but there can be zest and mirth where the 
voice of melody is not heard. The lawyer can plead 
without it. The merchant can prosper in business 
without it. But religion could not exizt without music. 
Heaven is a place of everlasting song. Angels and the 
redeemed sing and harp their unceasing worship. God 
puts himself in the emotional sound of music more 
than any other form of revelation. 

It is noteworthy that the ancient sacred books were 
almost without exception written in poetry and set to 
song. The Vedas, sacred books of India, the Zenda- 
vesta, sacred writings of Persia, are chiefly collections 
of sacred hymns. The authors of the Old Testament 
prophesied with harp in hand, and inspired by music, 
set their revelations to measure. The harmony of 
music brought their hearts closer to the heart of God 
than any other means of devotion — closer than all that 
is seen with the eye — closer than all else that is heard 
with the ear. Being less artificial than we, and cling- 
ing closer to God and their own inner lives, they saw 
the eternal foundations of truth clearer than we ; hence 
the revelations made to their hearts were for all lands 
and all ages. They were brought into experiences older 
than the Old Testament and newer than the New Tes- 



176 CHILD -PLAY 



tament. Such revelations drawn from the life of God, 
from the heart of nature and fitting into the heart of 
man never can become antiquated ; never can lose their 
freshness and power. 

Nor has the world outgrown this former devotion. 

While the worshiper listens to the prayers and praise 
voiced in song, his heart is loosened, his emotions are 
awakened and there comes of a voice of truth to him 
such as he never heard before. A humiliation of heart, 
a poignant realization of sin, a pleading for a closer 
walk with God seize and lift him to a higher plane of 
life. Under the inspiring influence of the Gospel set 
to song the poor jaded, despondent soul is born again, 
and there comes welling up from his inner life revela- 
tions of the divine nature of which all human nature 
is partaker. Melody is the path between God and man 
more beaten than any other path. 



CHAPTER X. 



Mimic Play the Natural Language of Children. 

"The lower races are constantly using gesture language for the 
purpose for which the more cultivated races use verbal speech. 
They complete with signs the meaning of their scanty sentences, 
and use mimic actions to eke out the meaning of their monosyl- 
labic expressions, and to give force and precision to the vocal 
sounds. They have pronouns, but seldom use them, pointing to 
the object spoken of instead." — Taylor. 

"In truth, gesture is the most eloquent and powerful exppnent 
of emotion and may add almost incredible force to the utterance 
of the tongue." — Faris. 

IRST, that which is natural, then that which is 
, artificial, is the universal law of human progress. 
Natural gifts and bestowments are the beginning of all 
that we are, have and do. The natural products of the 
earth lie at the foundation of all our artificial creations 
and acquired wealth. 

Long before the days of grinding mills and bolted 
flour; before the invention of frying pans, dishes, table 
napkins, and silver spoons, Adam lived luxuriantly at 
nature's table spread with nature's own products. Our 
mouths water to think of the good things that filled his 
mouth. Peaches, pears, raw oysters with a relish of 
roots, aromatic seeds, and fragrant salads ; for desert, 
ever-bearing oranges and strawberries, budding, bloom- 
ing and ripening their fruit all the year round. Some 
epicure said it was possible for God to make a better 

(177) 



178 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



fruit than the strawbery, but he did not think that He 
ever did. It might have been possible for divine good- 
ness to make a better bill of fare than Adam's, but no 
French cook ever did. 

First, that which is natural, then that which is arti- 
ficial, in dress. Long before the days of looms, linens, 
lawns, and laces ; before gold and precious stones were 
wrought into jewelry, Mother Eve clothed herself in 
robes wrought by nature's handicraft. Mantled in 
broad, green fig leaves, entwined with flowers of every 
tint and hue, and draped with streamers of tropical 
moss, she was a picture of beauty and voluptuousness. 

First, that which is natural, then that which is arti- 
ficial, in language. Long before the child can articulate 
the words used by grown-up folks, before he has 
learned the arts of speech from primer, reader, and 
dictionary, he is a living, loving, social, and communi- 
cating human being. A spontaneous untaught lan- 
guage bursts from his heart, sparkles in his eyes, rings 
in his laughter, pleads in his cry, streams from his fin- 
gers, is acted in gestures and delineated in imitations. 

The natural language of free and joyous play quick- 
ens intelligence, fills the heart with warmth and love, 
and starts the child in social life as no school teacher 
ever could. 

Language is derived from the Latin word lingua^ 
" tongue," and means " tongueiness." The self-com- 
placent Greeks, adoring their polished speech, believed 
that theirs was the only language on earth, and called 
all those who did not speak the Greek language " Bab- 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 179 



babblers," a word contracted into "barbarians," which 
means not talkers but babblers. 

We book-taught adults have fallen into such haughty 
admiration of our " tongueiness,'' that we disdain to re- 
gard anything but "tongueiness" as speech. When 
told that the child's in-born thoughts and emotions 
swelling within the soul burst forth into natural lan- 
guage, and that the child has talking fingers, talking 
gestures, talking features and mimic talking before he 
has a talking tongue, and that play has a value as a lan- 
guage, and is the child's natural way of communicating, 
we big folks, endowed with the gift of tongues, disdain- 
fully answer " Play language, play nonsense ! There is 
no speech but tongueiness." 

The origin of language is a desire to communicate. 
The social instinct is universal and with most of the 
lower animals is very strong. These gregarious crea- 
tures become lonely and cry most pitifully when de- 
prived of each other's company. The mewing of the 
lonely cat, the bleating of the lonely lamb, the neighing 
of the lonely horse, the chirp of the lonely insect, the 
plaintive song of the lonely bird tell how sad solitude is 
to all animated beings. Their call for companionship 
is heard and eagerly answered, and they haste to be to- 
gether again. Together in flocks, in herds, in coveys, 
in swarms, they feed, travel and rest. 

But the charm of being together is the charm of con- 
versing together. Wherever the social instinct exists, 
with it there is given the power of communication suf- 
ficient for the restricted needs of these gregarious crea- 
tures. By voice, by touch, by sight, by scent, they in- 



180 CHILD - PLAY, OR 



terchange their instinctive impulses and desires, and are 
made happy by the interchange. By a language all 
their own, they communicate, co-operate, control and 
direct each other's natural activity for their mutual well- 
being. Beyond doubt, beasts, birds and insects, as well 
as men, have significant modes of communication. 

Recently a scientist, protected in an iron cage, went 
to the jungles of Africa to investigate the gorilla lan- 
guage. No eaves-dropper ever heard anything good of 
himself, and if he had only heard what they said about 
him his ears would have burned. By common consent 
the wild things have placed us all on the black list. 
Crows, robins, parrots, bobolinks, squirrels, rabbits, 
monkeys — all well-behaved beasts and birds live and 
gossip together as a happy family, with an occasional 
bit of unpleasantness, which is soon mended. But at 
the very sight of human beings they cry, " There he 
comes ! that sportsman (?) armed with gun, trap, hook and 
bait ! There she comes ! With our wings adorning 
her bonnet, robed in our fur, and with hands and feet 
dressed in our skins dyed and tanned for the occasion. 
There they come." And away all the wild things go to 
the tops of the highest trees, to the thickest woods and 
the deepest water. They would not speak to us for the 
world. We never could get their secrets until an eaves- 
dropper, in his iron cage, stole a march on them and 
listening through the key-hole discovered their mode of 
communication. Mr. Garner now informs us that goril- 
las have an "articulate language," " a definite animal 
vocabulary of a considerable number of words." But 
while he knew the meaning and could even pronounce a 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 181 

number of those gorilla words our alphabet, which does 
not represent more than one in fifty of the possible 
vocal sounds, is inadequate to write them. And such 
is generally true of the voice of animals. The beast 
and bird language composed of elementary sounds dif- 
fering from those of the human voice would require an 
alphabet all their own to write their language. 

On acquaintance we see, wonder, and admire the 
sagacity of those wild creatures. Many things in their 
mode of life seem like the perfected results of the 
keenest intellect and the highest culture. But our 
unfriendly relations deprive us of the opportunity of 
studying their wondrous ways. At our approach the 
sentinel puts his finger to his lips and all is as silent as 
death. 

We need not go to the wilds of Africa to study the 
natural language of beasts and birds. It is spoken in 
our own poultry yards, full of significance and with 
matchless perfection. 

As we walk among our fowls we recognize one voice 
as an expression of affection, another the expression of 
fear, another of anger, another the cry of pain. They 
have voices or words which we interpret as coaxing, 
persuading, commanding, threatening; words meaning 
passion, caution, disapprobation, defiance. 

The mother hen's dialect is a model of propriety and 
could be copied and borrowed with advantage for use 
in any nursery. Her conversation with her brood is at 
once pathetic, emphatic, and laconic. When leading 
the little ones out foraging, a short positive word 
annouces that she has found something good, and with 



182 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



feet and wings the little ones fly to seize the dainty 
morsel. On chilly mornings before breakfast is ended, 
those chicken-children become drabbled and chilled. 
Their bare feet get so cold they cry most pitifully. 
Now the mother hen in words half scolding and half 
coaxing, leads them to an appropriate place for rest 
and shelter. Once there, all chiding is laid aside and 
with voice of unspeakable tenderness and compassion, 
she invites them to hover and warm beneath her wings ; 
and the little chicks as sweetly answer back, " now we 
are warm and happy." On social occasions, when the 
whole flock is out together, a gallant old rooster turns 
his keen eye skyward and cries "Coit" (a chicken way 
of saying caution), and as quick as the flight of an 
arrow the little chicks are hidden away in the grass and 
under the coops. The danger has soon passed and 
with a word of reassurance from their gallant leader 
they go on their way as if nothing had happened. The 
same vigilant leader, which standing sentinel, signals 
danger during the day, acts as herald at night and 
announces the coming day. Early to bed and early to 
rise is the chicken's motto. After the first nap, the 
cock rings out in clarion tones, "What of the night"? 
and from every perch for miles around answers are 
returned: "The morning cometh.'' " Don't forget it." 
"The early worm will be out." 

We not only understand the language of our domestic 
fowls, but they understand us as well, and before we 
are aware of it a mutual understanding is established 
and we enter into conversation with them and talk to 
them in our language and they talk back to us in theirs. 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUail PLAY. 183 



Those who study the natural language of domestic 
fowls and birds become rapt in admiration. Their 
speech is so wonderfully pathetic and imperative, so 
emphatic and laconic. What a pity that we cannot 
reproduce it or write it, because we cannot spell it. 

Great is human "speech," but it is not the only lan- 
guage in the universe. Wherever the gregarious or 
social instinct exists, there is a natural language for its 
enjoyment. 

These cunning creatures have means of communica- 
tion marvelously adapted to their disposition and mode 
of life. The carniverous beasts and birds, which lie in 
wait to feast and fatten on the warm blood and quiver- 
ing flesh of their neighbors, are taciturn creatures. 
They live a silent life and have a silent language of 
grimace and gesture. 

This voiceless speech is the language of caution, 
cunning, craft and cruelty. The sly animal uses it to 
capture his prey. Birds of prey never sing; "the 
barking dog never bites." We have all observed the 
stealthy creep of the cat, signaling with his vibrating 
tail his intention to attack ; the silent pointer walking 
with noiseless step into the very midst of a bevy of 
birds, and the crafty hunter concealing himself behind 
the bush and beckoning to his companion. In some 
cases, when the victim is just within their grasp, the 
silence is suddenly broken with a terrific and paralyz- 
ing howl. 

But all honest, harmless beasts and birds are very 
social, very talkative creatures. They rejoice to hear 
and be heard. Separated from view by a thousand 



184 CHILD -PLA^Y, OR 



intervening objects, they talk twice as much and twice 
as loud, because being denied the sight of their com- 
panions they can only communicate through the voice 
and ear. 

The birds and insects which live in the bush and 
grass and are necessarily much out of each other's 
sight, as a rule, are very vociferous creatures. The 
clear ring of their voices is often heard in every direc- 
tion when not a living thing can be seen. The katy- 
did, concealed in the grass or perched on the limb of 
some thickly shaded tree, speaks out from its unknown 
whereabouts and is answered back in the sharp rasping 
"Katy-did," by every noisy insect from a rod to a mile 
away. Out of sight is not out of mind with the social 
birds. Hidden away in the depths of the forests they 
talk and gossip the live-long day. One of these 
feathered songsters is telling the story of love ; another 
speaks in the crisp laconic voice of fear or caution ; 
others are exchanging melodies and medleys learned 
during some migratory flight in foreign lands. These 
bird songs are evidently intended more for sense than 
sound. It is bird sociability, and every note has some 
definite significance. Frogs and crickets grow more 
vociferous as night comes on. They are probably 
afraid of the dark, and go on constantly talking to keep 
each other's courage up. 

Within restricted limits human speech is interchang- 
able with beast and bird speech. We borrow words 
from their language and they understand and obey our 
commands. We daily converse with our domestic 
animals and by word of mouth direct them how to 



SELF - EDUCATION THKOUGH PLAV. 185 

serve us. In plain king's English we guide and 
govern our horses, give commands to our dogs, sending 
them on errands, directing them to carry letters, to 
guard our property, to stand on two feet, to dance and 
to perform a hundred antics. 

A shepherd was engaged in conversation with a 
friend, and his dog, lying at his feet and under the dis- 
guise of sleep, was listening to every word he said. 
The thought occurred to give an exhibition of his 
canine's sagacity. While the two gentlemen were dis- 
cussing the news of the day, without variation of vocal 
tone or even addressing the dog, the shepherd inter- 
lined his conversation with the remark, "The cows are 
in the meadow." In a moment the dog bounded away 
to explore the field mentioned. But, failing to find the 
cows, he retiirned with a puzzled, dejected look and lay 
down. After a while the same remark was repeated. 
This time the dog, standing with his fore feet on the 
top of the nearest fence, looked over the meadow, and, 
failing to see cows there, shook his head and lay down 
again, evidently with diminished confidence in the 
veracity of his master. 

Volumes could be filled with entertaining stories of 
educated horses, educated dogs, cats, birds, wild beasts 
and reptiles, all trained by word of mouth to know and 
do their master's will, and to go through the most com- 
plicated evolutions. They catch the meaning of our 
words, and under verbal direction can be trained to do, 
to a limited degree at least, almost everything human 
beings do. 



186 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



Birds borrow and copy each other's songs. The 
parrot is especially noted for his gifted tongue. He 
catches up and repeats any voice that he may chance 
to hear. He barks like the dog, mews like the cat, 
screams like the hawk ; he weeps with those who weep, 
and laughs with those who laugh. In his masterly use 
of human speech he reveals family secrets and exposes 
family vices, such as using profane language or sug- 
gesting that wine be passed when the minister calls. 
To a limited degree these creatures understand and 
borrow language from us, and in turn we understand 
and borrow words and suggestions from them. 

An American traveler, in that queer old China, dis- 
tinguished for many queer tastes and odd customs, had 
an unknown dish placed before him at the table by a 
waiter who spoke in an unknown language. Suppos- 
ing, or rather wishing it to be duck in preference to 
some other article of food which appear in the Chinese 
biU-of-fare, with his features all worked up into inter- 
rogation points, he addressed the waiter, "Quack ! 
quack ! " and was answered back, " Bow-wow." Not 
duck, but dog. 

These lower creatures, that have served us in so 
many ways, have contributed something of their vocab- 
ulary to enlarge and enrich our own. Beyond a doubt 
we have coined hundreds of our words from imitations 
of their voices. We speak of them in their own tongue. 
Such English words as horse, crow, pee-wee, whippoor- 
will, katy-did, and many others so corrupted as to lose 
sight of their origin, were suggested by the sound of 
the living animal's voice. Much of the criminal's 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 187 

caution and stealth, constructed into a sign language, 
has evidently been lent and borrowed from the stealthy 
communication of some of these low and vicious 
creatures. 

That pest of the pantry, the ant family, communi- 
cates with the silent touch of their antennae. This 
wink and nudge language has always been the signal 
for malignant mischief. A can of preserves is left 
open, or an unguarded pie is placed on the shelf. A 
fretting, miserly ant, ever out exploring every place 
and in every direction, soon makes the discovery. 
Hurrying home it goes through the nest nudging right 
and left and reports the find. In fifteen minutes the 
whole colony has invaded the pantry. Tunneling their 
way through the under side of the pie, they swarm in 
between the upper and lower crust, and feast and revel 
and drink till the last drop of sweet juice is gone. The 
pie, safe and sound in external appearance, comes to 
the table as dry as a chip, and the result is the dessert 
course causes a dryness all around the table, except in 
the eyes of the mortified cook. 

Soloman said, "Go to the ant, thou sluggard, and 
learn to be wise." The ancient Armenian merchants 
accepted its tutelage, learned and practiced its example. 
They constructed a tactile or finger touch language 
which they tactily used for the purpose of advantage in 
trade. A purchaser appearing, the merchant on one 
side of the counter and the clerk on the other, under 
pretense of showing the goods, by a preconcerted sys- 
tem of finger touches and nudges, discussed the proba- 
ble wealth of the purchaser and his gullability. And 



188 CHLLD-PLAY, OR 



while they were displaying their wares above the 
counter and flattering their patrons with the tongue, 
beneath the counter they were fleecing him with their 
fingers. 

But, after conceding all this, there is a deep and un- 
fathomable gulf of distinction between the speech of 
these irrational animals and human speech. The 
"minded one" has faculties of speech unique and 
peculiar to himself. These soulless creatures, without 
minds, without a knowledge of cause and effect, are also 
without language in the strictest sense of the word. 
What we call animal speech, is only the expression of 
an unconscious impulse, draped with our own imagina- 
tion. Their own voices and our words addressed to 
their discriminating ears become associated with the 
gratification of their appetites, with their protection 
from danger, avoidance of pain or some enforced ac- 
tivity and reflex action produces an involuntary cry. 
Such is the beginning and ending of beast and bird 
language. 

The same line of distinction, which in all other 
respects separates man from the lower animals, separ- 
ates human speech from animal speech. This lower 
race are the children of nature, and nature provides for 
all their wants, while man, with power over nature, 
creates the condition of his own well-being. These 
irrational creatures, without the product of loom or 
labor, are robed in the softest fur, or adorned with the 
most gorgeous feathers ; without sowing or reaping 
they are bountifully fed ; and without teaching or being 
taught they are endowed with means of communication 
sufficient for their needs. 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 189 



Happy creatures, they gossip, chatter, sing, frolic 
and sleep life away. Their young have no schools to 
attend, no letters to learn, no words to spell and define, 
no reading lesson to get, no copy to write, no dictionary 
to commit to memory, no grammar to study, no nouns 
and verbs to parse, no singulars and plurals to disagree, 
no tense and modes to puzzle their little brains, no 
language to learn. The creator of their social lives 
gave them an untaught and an unlearned speech in 
which they communicate with unerring certainty. In 
the ready use of their mother tongue they never stam- 
mer, never hesitate ; they never fail to get the right 
word in the right place ; they never mispronounce and 
are never misunderstood. The squirrel has his chatter, 
the wolf his bark and howl, the insect has its din ; the 
bird has her song of quiet contentment, her clutter 
of excitement and alarm, her cry of warning and cluck 
of maternal affection ; and in every case, the same 
sense of hearing which catches the sound interprets its 
meaning. And all this infallible speech is inherited 
ready for use when the occasion requires. The first 
chirp of every bird of the same species, the first bleat 
of every lamb, the first mew of every kitten, the first 
cry of every parent over her young, are the same in 
sound and significance ; generation after generation 
nothing is added, nothing subtracted. It is all a guid- 
ing vocal habit impressed on their nature by Him who 
made them thus. 

But man with power over nature is the architect of 
his own speech. He provides his own food, clothing 
and shelter, creates his own social institutions and con- 



190 



CHILD - PLAY, OR 



structs his own language. No man becomes possessed 
of any existing language without the labor of learning 
it. The first baby word is an event in the life of every 
child. It is his debut into social existence. He has 
now given the world a bit of his mind and, henceforth, 
will plead his own cause. 

But who, with a hundred chances, would dare to guess 
what that first baby word will be. He has no in-born 
vocables which are the natural signs of ideas. What 
that first baby speech will be depends entirely on the 
accident of his birth and his infantile environments. 
In his attempts at speech there is but one certainty, 
that is, he is certain to stammer, to miss the meaning, 
to mispronounce and to miss being understood. The 
"baby words" are the failure in his attempt to make 
them the man's words. 

This baby speech, with a possibility of a hundred or 
a thousand different starting points and ways in un- 
folding, is differentiated more and more. He is con- 
stantly laying aside old forms and modes of communi- 
cation and adopting new. The human mind, with 
power over nature, is capable of converting everything 
seen, heard or felt into mediums of communication. If 
deprived of one kind of speech another is immediately 
contrived. Mind is capable of speaking to mind through 
the medium of vocal sounds, pictures, alphabetical sym- 
bols, with pen or printed page. 

There are methods of speech addressed to the sense 

of touch, as with the blind reading with finger touches. 

There are methods of speech addressed to the eye, as 

n case of the deaf communicating with visible signs. 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY, 191 

There are methods of speech addressed to the ear, as in 
case of conversation being carried on with audible 
words. Language is the medium of thought, and any- 
thing in heaven above or the earth beneath — anything 
seen, heard, tasted, touched or smelled may by common 
consent be chosen as the symbol of thought. The 
skillful arrangement and general acceptance of these 
symbols is all there is in language. The miracle is not 
in speech, but the miracle is in the power of the mind 
to speak to the mind through these symbols. The 
miracle is not in speech, but in the power of mind over 
nature to convert audible sounds, the written page, the 
printing press, the phonograph, the telegraph into 
mediums of mind communicating with mind ; just as the 
same mind power over nature constructs other machin- 
ery and articles of use from nature's infinite resources. 
The origin of a language and the origin of a threshing 
machine is one — a human invention to supply human 
wants. 

But man, in part the child of nature and in part the 
architect of his own attainments, has an underlying, 
natural language which is the basis of his artificial lan- 
guage. First, that which is natural, then that which is 
artificial, is the law of human progress. The child first 
gives expression to his thought and emotion through 
that natural activity called play. 

MIMIC PLAY IS THE CHILD'S NATURAL LANGUAGE. 

From the first year of their lives children are social 
beings and delight in each others society. The magic 
of being together is the magic of being able to converse 



192 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



together, nor do they wait till they are able to spell and 
define or even to pronounce words before they begin. 
It is as natural and easy for children to tell what they 
see, hear and know, as it is to see it, hear it and know it. 

It is written "There was silence in heaven for the 
space of an half hour." Very remarkable, indeed, 
when we remember that in the celestial world, as in 
the prayer meeting, women are largely in the majority; 
and, as some pessimist imagined, with scarcely men 
enough to sing bass. But a group of little folks are 
not together for the space of a half minute till they 
read each other like a book and invent some means of 
exchanging ideas. Prof. W. Preyer has made a most 
patient and critical observation of the development of 
the child's mind. He cites examples of the infant at 
the age of six months, choosing an end and selecting 
fit means to secure that end ; and voices the results of 
his observation : " The child shows plainly to the 
attentive observer that long before the knowledge of 
words as a means of understanding among men ; long 
before the first successful attempt to express himself in 
articulate words; nay, long before learning the pro- 
nunciation of a single word, the child thinks and 
connects ideas in a logical manner." Nor do those 
infantile thinkers and reasoners meditate in silence. 
With them thinking and telling is all but inseparable. 
Without the aid of spoken words they devise ways and 
means to make their opinions known and respected. 

The artificer of the human mind and intelligence, 
together with that mind and intelligence, gave to little 
human beings the power of creating language for them- 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 193 

selves; talking fingers, talking gestures, and mimic 
play come before tongue talking. When and wherever 
a group of little folks come together, by methods of 
their own they create a self-interpreting language, and 
are at once deluged in all the delights of social enjoy- 
ment. The world and all its fullness, the ages and all 
their mysteries, seem to be born anew from the fertile 
imagination of each new-born child. There is nothing 
in the wide world, high heaven or deep sea, but what 
the child can reproduce and act in play. 

The day was glorious at sea beyond description. The 
smooth blue waters beneath mirrored the blue sky 
above. Breezes from a tropical shore, fragrant with 
tropical bloom and fruit and as soft as the breath of 
sleeping infancy, played around the ship. The occasion 
awakened admiration in every heart and inspired all 
with sociability. 

A cultured gentleman, whose extended travel made 
him familiar with every shore, was eloquently enter- 
taining his auditors by contrasting the luxuriant south- 
land with the eternal barrenness and death of the 
arctic land. 

On another quarter of the deck there was a group of 
children who had caught the spirit of the sea and were 
playing sea voyage. Few were their words. They 
were little actors dramatizing their sociability. They 
began by floating little bits of paper across a bucket of 
water. Their puerile sport developed in logical order. 
Soon they were acting joyful meetings of friends and 
sad separations, such as had been witnessed at every 
landing;. The toilet of their dolls and the collection of 



194 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



their toys were a strange medley of characters and cus- 
toms brought from every shore. Floating icebergs and 
tropical lands, brilliant with flowers and fruits, were 
placed in strange proximity. How these little folks 
get up so many methods and ways of playing their 
thoughts and emotions is a never ceasing enigma. 
While the older people were telling the story of the sea, 
in the language of grown up folks, these children were 
evidently telling the same story, in their own sweet 
way, the language of child's play. 

Thought, emotion, desire to communicate, is inborn 
in the human mind, and this mimic play is the child's 
natural way of expressing it. This sign language is to 
them an easier way of receiving and communicating 
ideas. Children understand it before they are capable 
of acquiring artificial speech. It can be spoken and 
understood by the child when verbal language would 
make no impresssion. And no child ever attains to the 
use of spoken language independent of sign language. 
He comes to the knowledge of words through the use 
of signs. Mimic play is the child's natural way of 
beginning to talk. 

There has been deep philosophy and costly experi- 
ments to find the origin of language. Philosophers 
have 'propounded and pondered over these and like 
questions. Is human speech nature's production, is it 
man's invention, or is it God's gift? 

An ancient king in search of the primitive speech, 
separated two children from their friends and confined 
them in solitude where they would never hear the 
sound of human voice till the talking period was past. 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY, 11 5 

Their nurse ministered to their wants in profoundest 
silence. Growing up free from all conventionality 
these children would certainly return to a state of 
nature and speak the language of the first born children 
of mankind. 

In modern times, the learned, in quest of this 
primitive tongue, have rumaged the annals of all races. 
They have made themselves acquainted with all the 
difierent stages of culture from the lowest barbarism to 
the highest attainments of civilization and literature. 
Digging in search of knowledge with ax and pick, they 
have unearthed the ruins of ancient cities ; they have 
deciphered the clay and stone-written libraries of 
Egypt and Syria, hoping their hieroglyphics would 
lead to the solution of this perplexing problem. With 
matchless patience they have matched together word 
by word and sentence by sentence the oldest literature 
of India and China, that they might find the key to 
these dead languages and be one mighty step nearer 
the first-born speech. 

Defeated and bewildered by all this research, they 
tell us the origin of language is still an unsolved 
problem, and that if ever there was a natural language, 
it is still an undiscovered mode of communication. 

This roundabout search for what was in sight all the 
time was paralleled by Dr. Franklin's search for the 
mistletoe. The doctor, as a naturalist, was fond of 
novelties. With all his wit and wondrous wisdom, he 
had never seen the mistletoe growing, and resolved to 
discover this natural curiosity cost what it would. In 
his eagerness to get a sight of this parasite, he had 



196 CHILD -PLAY, OE 



gone to Europe, and had explored the wild woods of 
America as far as a prudent man would dare to venture. 
Returning home from his fruitless search, he found 
a beautiful mistletoe growing to the limb of an oak 
tree in his own yard. 

If these learned investigators had closed their books 
for a moment and looked out on the children's play- 
ground or into their own nursery, there they would 
have discovered this natural language for which the 
philologist had searched in vain. That natural lan- 
guage is play. Where older people would voice their 
thoughts in words children act theirs in play, and pro- 
duce a self interpreting language for the occasion. 

The Canadian Indians, living on friendly terms with 
the French settlers, were accustomed to leave their 
children at the settlements while on hunting excur- 
sions. The little redskins and pale-faces at once 
joined hands for sport and play. Away they went 
through the forest and through each other's hearts and 
minds. In a day or a week they had devised a lan- 
guage made up of signs, nudges, winks, yelps, whist- 
ling and slang, through which they could read each 
other like a book. 

After a few weeks absence the returning braves were 
astonished to find this infantile colony in possession of 
modes of communication — a language all their own, 
entirely unintelligible to their parents. This new born 
juvenile speech would keep pace with the advancing 
intelligence and observation of the youngsters. 

If their seniors had been absent six years instead of 
six weeks, at their return they would have seen every 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 197 

rock and tree, everything that they could scratch with 
flint or jack-knife, all carved over with hieroglyphics. 
A group arresting special attention, and interpreted by 
one of the larger boys for the edification of the older 
people, would be the sun on stilts, meaning a day's 
journey ; a grotesque figure of a man in odd apparel, a 
record of a visit from a noted stranger ; a dog with a 
man's head, or a man with a dog's head, stood for a 
trusty friend, or fidelity, etc. Original methods of 
speech spring up among juveniles like mushrooms. 

The child in beginning to talk vocal language strug- 
gles against many difiiculties of speech to which older 
people are strangers. He does not know the meaning 
of the big words used by grown-up folks, and if he did 
know them he could not pronounce them. He calls 
cows " tows," calves " talves," bread " bed," sugar 
*' oogy," umbrella " hella." Handkerchief; what can a 
child do with such a jawbreaker as that ? He either 
has to devise some way to play it or call it " bib." 

Nature provides a way to help the child over these 
difiiculties. He is a born actor. Acting is his natural 
language. Before he either knows the meaning of 
words or is able to pronounce them the little play actor 
has won recognition, by gesture and attitude spoken 
his piece and given his auditors a bit of his mind. 

These little folks have acquired a great amount of 
intelligence before they have command of any verbal 
speech, and it is just as natural for them to dramatize 
their thought and observation as it is to see, hear, walk 
and rob birds' nests. 



198 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



The other Sunday on the way to church it was sug- 
gested to a pious sister that mimic play was the child's 
natural language — a bit of information which was car- 
ried into the sanctuary and diverted the lady's mind 
during the most solemn part of the sermon. During 
the prayer she bowed her head on the seat just back of 
a little three-year old girl sparkling with life and over- 
flowing with sociability. While the parson was pray- 
ing, visions of a pen of pigs at home and the prepara- 
tion at the breakfast table came floating throughout the 
mind of the child, and this little entertaining creature in- 
terluded the prayer with a recital of home afiairs for the 
entertainment of the lady. First she spread her hand- 
kerchief on the pew, and collecting all the hymn books, 
prayer books and bibles within her reach she piled them 
one on top of the other, remarking, " This is my pig 
pen, and now all my pigs are in it." Her wandering 
mind next thought of the breakfast table, and spreading 
her handkerchief for a cloth, books answered for dishes 
and imagination for cake and coSee. After a brief 
pause she lifted the handkerchief and shook her imag- 
ination away for crumbs, saying, " I have cleared up the 
table." We were scarcely out of the church when the 
lady remarked, " I never thought of it before, but I de- 
clare I do believe child's play has a significance as 
language." 

With children, thought, memory, recital, emotion, all 
run into physical demonstration. It requires the sum 
total of their being put into exercise to voice their 
mental impressions. They think and feel aloud; pleas- 
ure expresses itself in laughter, pain in crying, thought 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 199 

more in deeds than in words. In fact, thought acted is 
the child's method of thought — creative thought. 
When and where the mind goes the body goes with it. 
Children are born actors and the nursery is their stage. 
The little girl tells what she knows of love by caress- 
ing her doll. The boy tells what he knows of horse 
and carriage by dragging a chair uproariously over the 
floor, A little four-year-old sport had seen a hitched 
horse, after a series of vigorous plunges, break the hal- 
ter and canter away at a lively rate. This exhibition 
made a lasting impression on his mind, and he never 
wearied of telling the story nor failed to make it vivid 
and impressive. Many times a day, for months, he 
tied himself to the bed post, and after vigorous pulls 
and violent struggles, he would break himself loose 
and canter away imitating the horse. If a visitor 
called the story was sure to be repeated for his enter- 
tainment. 

This natural language becomes most real when chil- 
dren impersonate and play society. The school with 
its teacher and pupils, the church with its prayer, ser- 
mon and song, make a deep impression on the mind of 
the child. His limited vocabulary is altogether inade- 
quate to express what he understands and remembers 
of these exercises. But by playing school and church 
he reproduces and tells all in a way quite intelligible to 
other children or adults. Little folks are close observ- 
ers of older people, and read and understand them 
with fearful accuracy, and with the genius of a Scott 
or Dickens introduce them as characters in their play. 
No juvenile sport is more relished than dressing in the 



200 CHILD -PLAY, OK 



clothes of older people and playing company. In 
these borrowed wardrobes, with great glee, they imitate 
all the wisdom and all the folly of grown up people and 
play all the forms and fads of society. The dude, the 
lame man, the lover, the host, the visitor, are all per- 
sonated in a manner both serious and amusing. In 
this society play, those little ones exhibit what they 
know of older people and voice their own future hopes 
and expectations. Only a few words are used and yet, 
by gesture and attitude, all is told; and the little one 
that cannot talk at all plays its part in a way not to be 
misunderstood. 

There is another little tyrant actor who speaks this 
natural language with wonderful force and emphasis. 
He is the boy with impediment in his speech and slow 
of talking. His mother says he is sick; but it is a 
very vigorous kind of sickness, and when denied the 
use of the poker, book or his father's watch, his sick- 
ness lends wonderful energy to muscle and voice. His 
violent passion pervades his whole body. His unpleas- 
ant thought rushes into a frenzy, he screams and yells, 
he stamps, strikes and falls on the floor in a spasm of 
wrath and rage. An onlooker would think that he is 
rendering some scene in pandemonium. But it is 
thought or feeling that must be spoken in some way, 
in bodily action if he lacks words. It is no use to 
bottle up such tremendous emotion. That would kill 
the child — he would die of spontaneous combustion. 
Older and more cultivated people give vent to their 
feeling in appropriate language. This little piece of 
vim is using the only language he is master of, and 
with which he knows he can master other people. 



SELF - EDLXATION THROUGH PLAY. 201 

Don't be alarmed. He is not more depraved than 
other children. The workers in this world have need 
of intense emotion ; when older it will be voiced in 
another way. 

A traveler in China was overwhelmed with a feeling 
of lonely isolation. Strange faces, strange voices, 
strange customs and strangely constructed houses be- 
wildered and dazed his mind, till, in an humble dwell- 
ing he heard the cry of a child. "Ah ! that's my 
mother tongue in this foreign land.'' Children in 
China and children in America laugh and cry in the 
same language, and children the world over play in the 
same language, and like laughing and crying the mean- 
ing is at once obvious. Play speaks all languages. It 
is a self-interpreting speech bursting spontaneously 
from the infantile heart, and is understood by all. Any 
observer, at a glance, interprets play, understands its 
meaning, and through it reads the thoughts, emotions, 
and aspirations of the child. 

Untaught, spontaneous, sign and gesture language 
was beyond doubt the original and natural language of 
the race, and no artificer of speech could devise a lan- 
guage better befitting the wants of the nursery. Said 
Cicero: "Every passion of the heart has its appro- 
priate look, tone and gesture; and the whole body of 
man, and his whole countenance and all the voices he 
utters, re-echo like the strings of a harp to the touch of 
every emotion of his soul." 

The infantile human being is not born with faculties 
which eventually lead to speech, but with faculties 
which, from the beginning, spring up in ever changing 



202 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



forms of speech. First that which is natural, then that 
which is artificial ; first in living words spelled out in 
action and defined in doing ; then in vocal words 
spelled out in letters of the alphabet and defined in the 
dictionary. Language grows, and men are always ad- 
ding to their mother tongue. From infancy to gray 
hairs he is constantly dropping the old and taking on 
new forms of speech ; step by step, from mimic play to 
verbal speech, from visible to oral, from natural to 
artificial language. This inborn desire to communicate, 
advancing with the unfolding mind, is ever creating 
for itself new forms of thought and expression. 
Thought and a desire to communicate first set the 
hands going in imitative sign language, then later set 
the tongue going in arbitrary vocal sounds, and later 
still invented pen and printing press. Talking fingers 
are no less an expression of the mind than talking 
voice or talking pen. The hands, arms, feet, mechan- 
ical contrivances, are all instruments under the control 
of the same mind which controls the voice and pro- 
duces oral speech. 

Prof. Whitney says: "The basis of all language is 
the natural cry of human beings expressive of their 
feelings and capable of being understood." But action 
often speaks louder than words. Gesture and mimic is 
every whit as natural and as intelligible as the oral 
voice ; and, in the undeveloped condition of speech, 
every available means would be resorted to, to aid the 
laboring mind to express itself. In fact, in many cases 
signs are an easier means of communicating ideas, and 
may be understood where words would fail to make any 
impression. 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 203 

Demosthenese said : " The three primal requisites 
in eloquence are, 'Action, action, action.' " 

Our complicated verbal speech, with all its variety of 
style, wealth of diction and depth of pathos, has never 
been able to dispense with the language of gesture. 
The whole human body is oral with speech, and every 
organ of the body has its language. 

We have the language of hands. We clap our hands 
in approbation ; wring them in grief; rub them to 
signify delight ; raise them in astonishment ; wave 
them in triumph ; we join hands in a token of friend- 
ship ; close our fists in defiance ; we beckon with our 
hands to come; with them we wave a command to 
depart ; we point the finger of scorn ; we snap our 
fingers to signify contempt, and put the fingers to the 
lips in token of silence. 

We have a head language. We throw back the head 
in haughtiness ; bow the head in humility; shake the 
head to say " No ;" nod the head to say " Yes.'' 

We have an eye language. The eye twinkles in 
mirth; drops tears in grief; glares in despair; winks 
in secret communication ; the eye closes in disregard ; 
opens wide in observation ; knits the brows in dis- 
pleasure. 

We have a foot languge. We stamp our feet in rage ; 
pat the feet in contentment ; mince with the feet in 
affectation; we dance in joy; quick steps betray eager- 
ness, slow or halting steps hesitancy or despondency. 

While these modes of gesture may be arbitrary, still 
they have a natural basis, and that this sign language 
is at least one form of the natural language of human 



204 CHLLD-PLAY, OR 



beings is evidenced by its universal use and self-inter- 
preting qualities. 

We all remember stories of ship-wrecked men cast 
on foreign shores and brought into contact with sav- 
ages, where neither party knew a word of the other's 
spoken tongue ; but at sight they were able to exchange 
ideas by such signs as nature prompted. A ges- 
ture language was invented on the spur of the moment, 
enabling them (as Captain Riley did with the wild men 
of the desert) to discuss subjects of the highest impor- 
tance, involving exchange of goods, protection from 
danger, peace and war, plenty and famine, life and 
death. 

At an early day the Mississippi River was the high- 
way of nations. All kindreds, tongues, and grades of 
civilization were represented in the founding of St. 
Louis. Among the wonders of that western city was 
the early establishment of a school for the education of 
deaf mutes. The inmates of this school, in conformity 
to the usages of the time, were brought into free and 
easy communication with the mixed population congre- 
gated there or visiting the neighborhood. The inhabi- 
tants from the opposite side of the world, and people 
from the opposite poles of civilization, came and went 
across the ground — Indians, Chinese, French and Span- 
ish speaking people. This bedlam of foreign speakers 
looked and listened, dazed and amazed when trying to 
understand each other's vocal language. But, in the 
sign language of these deaf mutes the miracle of pen- 
tecost was again enacted, they heard every man speak 
in their own mother tongue. Mr. Peet, the author of a 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 205 

sign language for the use of mutes, says "the savages 
from the banks of the Mississippi and even the Chinese 
could, at sight, converse to some extent with the pupils 
in the deaf and dumb institution." 

This sign language forms the natural basis of a sign 
speech now used by the deaf and dumb mutes ; and as 
now developed is comprehensive and precise, accurately 
expressing every shade of thought and emotion which 
could be voiced by any other method of communica- 
tion, either spoken or written. Prof. Whitney thinks if 
this pantomimic speech had been elaborated by the 
consenting labor of generations, it would have devel- 
oped into stronger and more vivid forms of expression 
than any existing languge. 

The fittest lives, and practical use soon exposed 
imperfections which doomed mimic speech to neglect. 

Silence is not always golden. This voiceless lan- 
guage is full of meaning as long as we can see the 
face and observe the activity of the speaker. But it is a 
silent language addressed to the eye. The ear takes 
no note of it. The setting sun blots it out of sight. 
The darkness silences its voice. The intervening 
branches of trees veil it from view. 

This voiceless speech still lives; but save with the 
child and mute it is the language of caution, cunning 
and craft. 

Mr. Peet informs us that some of the most stealthy 
Indian tribes communicate chiefly by this silent sign lan- 
guage. Those silent people will remain in the forest 
all day with scarcely an audible sound to indicate their 
presence. Their dogs are trained not to bark. Their 



206 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



children seldom cry or laugh. This silence affords 
those stealthy folks the greatest advantage. It protects 
them from discovery and guards them against their 
foes. There is no spoken word to frighten away the 
game. The timid deer walks into their very presence- 
The silent arrow pierces his heart and he falls dead at 
their feet, with little alarm to the herd. 

But the vocal speech is not the language of caution 
and stealth. With wider range of time and space, it 
speaks to the ear alike in the darkness and in the light. 
Its audible sounds float with little obstruction through 
the jungle and the thickest wood. 

In the unfolding of the child's mind there comes a 
time when he too desires to make a noise in the world. 
He begins to feel the need of some art of communica- 
tion that is not silenced by darkness, and speaks out 
beyond the confines of the nursery. Now mimic signs 
speaking to the eye, give place to vocal signs addressed 
to the ear. But it is still a sign language. The thought 
and emotion, once associated with bodily action and ex- 
pressed by the motion of the hand, is now associated 
with sound and expressed by the motion of the tongue 
and lips. The eye once observed the muscular motions 
and through them read the thoughts of the mind. The 
ear now observes the sound and through that reads the 
mind. 

The spoken language of the adult is no more a mys- 
tery or miracle than the mimic play of the child ; the 
former for the best of reasons has naturally and grad- 
ually grown into the latter. 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 207 

THE EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE FROM INFANTILE TO 
ADULT FORMS OF SPEECH. 

The mind of the child and the mind of the race 
unfolds along parallel lines. There are methods which 
enable the learned to penetrate the prehistoric deeps, 
to go back to the very cradle of the race and reproduce 
the infantile speech of mankind, and learn how the first 
human beings thought and felt, how they got started 
talking, and what they said and did. Many of those 
first baby words of mankind are still preserved in the 
old Asiatic languages. 

While there is much proof that these first born 
human beings were created full-orbed men in posses- 
sion of perfect mental faculties, yet the mind had to be 
unfolded by its own activity, just as the mind of the 
child is developed to day. Cannon Farrer and other 
scholars have collected a great many of the most primi- 
tive forms of speech, and they are at once very like and 
unlike our method of word making. 

These first baby words of mankind were words of 
double meaning; one word meaning two things the 
most unlike ; one meaning being the very opposite of 
the other. For example, the same word which meant 
light also meant darkness; the word which meant good 
also meant evil; the same word which meant to bless 
also meant to curse ; the same word which meant life 
also meant death. And thus with the oldest words 
extant. Each had an antithesis in it — one meaning 
the opposite of the other. 



208 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



This paradoxical form of speech excites surprise till 
we reflect the human mind, first, last, and all the time, 
has the same method of thought and suggestion. 

Thought, like the pendulum, swings from one extreme 
to the other. The sight of a fallen man in adversity 
suggests his departed prosperity. We think by con- 
trast. These first born children of mankind had minds 
and methods of thought like our own ; but without our 
words to voice their thoughts. We still think by con- 
trast and put an antithesis in every thought. The 
sight of great wealth and splendor painfully calls to 
mind the destitution of the poor. The brightest day of 
our lives suggests the darkest. Thoughts of pain and 
pleasure; thoughts of good and evil; thoughts of right 
and wrong, of crime and virtue, of life and death, are 
closely linked together in our mind and come and go 
together. 

Primitive man in his poverty of speech had but one 
word covering all this range of contrasting thought and 
emotion. The first baby words of mankind bursting 
spontaneously from his heart expressed the full scope 
of all that he thought or felt in a single word; and the 
precise meaning was indicated by gesture or articula- 
tion. The word "light" uttered with rising inflection 
of the voice or with the uplifting of the hands, meant 
brightness. The same word, uttered in doleful cadence 
with drooping hands, meant "the light is gone,"or"dark- 
ness." The word "blessing,'' uttered with triumphant 
voice and hands meant to be blessed ; the same word 
uttered with opposite inflections and gestures, signified 
that the blessings had departed, and in this way it 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PliAY. 209 

comes to mean "cursed."' These antithetical words, as 
they appear in the old hieroglyphic writings, have 
marks over them suggestive of the dififerent inflections 
of voice or gestures accompanying their utterance, 
rendering the meaning clear. Of course our explana- 
tion of these words with negative and positive mean- 
ing is conjectural. For the negative meaning a vocal 
expression would suffice; for the positive meaning 
some vocal expression accompanied with mimic action. 
The marks on the written words clearly indicate differ- 
ent ways of speaking the same word to distinguish its 
different meaning. These different pronunciations 
gradually grew into different and more definite words ; 
perhaps words pronounced with more of voice and less 
of gesture. 

The mind of the individual and the mind of the race 
unfolds along parallel lines : the young representing the 
remote ancestry, the adult representing the immediate 
ancestry. 

As the baby mind unfolds, spoken words mingle more 
and more with mimic play ; playing less and talking 
more. The year old child communicates entirely by 
action. The child of two years having a vocabulary of 
twenty or thirty words, still communicates almost en- 
tirely by gesture, his few stammering words being 
scarcely used to express his desires. At seven the 
child's vocabulary has grown to the number of two or 
three hundred words, and yet with those of his own 
age, his sociability is immensely more played than 
spoken. 



210 CHILD - PLAY, OR 



A single banyan seed grows into a branching tree. 
The drooping branches strike root and continue to grow 
into additional trees, and their branches strike root and 
grow into other trees till the single seed becomes a for- 
est, a jungle, the emblem of everlastingness. 

The banyan is a fit symbol of the growth of language. 
Its first seed is a mental impulse instinctively express- 
ing itself in a self-prompted and self-interpreting ges- 
ture. That gesture eventually becomes the recognized 
sign of emotion and thought. As the human mind un- 
folds this language of gesture strikes root and grows 
into a spoken language ; signs addressed to the eye 
grow into voices addressed to ear. 

This language tree spreading into broader and ever- 
changing form to meet the growing conditions of com- 
munication, again strikes root and grows into a picture 
language — hierogliphic symbols of thought capable of 
being carried from place to place and handed down 
from generation to generation. 

Still sending up new stalks, this language tree grows 
into still more complicated forms. The picture lan- 
guage grows into an alphabetical language, with char- 
acters as signs of the difierent elementary sounds of 
the human voice. By combining these characters certain 
sounds are produced — the recognized signs of ideas at 
once appealing to the eye and the ear. 

As the language-producing mind continues to unfold, 
thought becomes more analytic and discriminating. 
There is a felt need of more precise forms of speech. 
The heterogeneous multitude of words must be clas- 
sified and language takes on grammatical form. The 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 211 

most precise and explicit communications now is possi- 
ble by the use of the human voice. 

The infinite mind, capable of creating an infinite 
variety of symbols to voice its ever-unfolding thought, 
produces from this language tree still another mode of 
communication independent of time and space — tel- 
egraphy. 

In the evolution of human speech it is worth while to 
observe its order was first that which is visible, then 
that which is audible. Telegraphy still clings to this 
law. In its earlier forms these lightning, transmitted 
words were spelled out in dots and dashes addressed to 
the eye ; later by a preconcerted combination of clicks 
addressed to the ear. 

The miracle is not in the language, but it is the mir- 
acle of an infinite mind which had the power to speak 
and continue to express itself by creating an endless 
variety of symbols of thought, each symbol becoming 
the habitual representative of some definite thought or 
shade of thought. To-day our English vocabulary con- 
sists of more than a hundred thousand accepted signs 
of ideas. 

Through centuries of growth, through sign language 
and exclamation, through hierogliphics and picture lan- 
guage, and through alphabetical language, speech un- 
folds. And after a great deal of training and cast iron 
regulation, if the emotion is not too violent, older people 
confine their thoughts to the molecular action of the 
brain and give them expression in words uttered through 
the operation of the vocal organs. But this is a dull 
way of telling people what we know. The theater, 



212 CHILD -PLAY, OK 



where the story is more played than spoken, continues 
to be more impressive both to old and young. The 
world is still full of grown-up children to whom the 
concerted action of mind and muscle is an indispensable 
necessity. These uneducated folk have not yet gained 
the separate use of body, mind, eye, ear, hand and foot. 
The mental and bodily faculties work together. Noise, 
pageantry and physical demonstrations are necessary to 
sweep the cob-webs from their brains and set their 
minds going. What little thinking they do is done in 
a very muscular way. Even to this date savages think 
by whooping, yelling, dancing and flourishing danger- 
ous weapons. 

Humboldt tells us the Terra del Fuagians are grown- 
up babies, having next to no thought at all ; and the 
few words they attempt to speak are accompanied with 
such an amount of acting and exertion, that after speak- 
ing two or three words they fall to the ground exhausted. 

In the south of Italy and Sicily, as travelers inform us, 
the common people carry on social communication 
nearly as much by gesture as by speech. 

Every one has observed the amount of bodily exer- 
tion foreigners, not yet familiar with a newly acquired 
tongue, put into their conversation. They splutter and 
stutter. They gesticulate and beat the air with their 
open palms and clinched fists. They weave their bodies 
back and forth, squirming into almost every possible 
attitude. Their thought pervades their whole body. 
They talk all over. 

A little German boy, taken into an English family, 
persisted in saying his prayers in German for the two- 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 213 

fold reason : he thought that God understood German 
better, and it was easier to' be nice and quiet when he 
prayed in German. 

The Bible still retains many traces of this primitive 
form of speech, half spoken and half acted. 

One of the Hebrew prophets made horns of iron and 
went about giving violent thrusts with them to empha- 
size his prophecy of the Syrians being put to flight in 
battle. In grief the Hebrews wounded their flesh and 
disfigured their persons with earth and ashes. In joy, 
they decorated their persons with oil, paint and bright 
raiment. 

All this is so clearly akin to the instinctive activity 
of the child, called play, that these primitive forms of 
speech reflect great light on the child's play; and the 
child's play aids in elucidating and understanding the 
peculiarities of primitive speech and custom. 

All summed up. The life of human beings exist in 
the two-fold form of thought and action and only an 
approximate separation of this two-fold form of activity 
can be made. 

Persons of a highly intellectual cast of mind live 
more in the realm of quiet thought and silent medita- 
tion. Persons of copious and vivid feelings' live more 
in the realms of bodily action. 

At the two extreme points of life, infancy and mature 
age, this separation between thought and action is most 
complete. 

The infantile life begins in spontaneous instinctive 
activity not yet developed into thought. The first 
baby words are words on the wing. They are verbal 



214 CHILD -PLAY, OK 



words, "come," "go," "do," "give." The first baby 
thought bursts forth in some form of self-interpreting 
activity. 

But the matured, cultivated mind has been trained to 
live in the realm of quiet thought and abstract medita- 
tion. This fully matured, fully educated mind, inde- 
pendent of symbols, soars away into the ethereal regions 
of reason and memory and mounts into celestial visions 
so far removed from all physical exertion that, whether 
in the body or out of the body, who can tell? 



CHAPTKR XI. 



Play a Self=Education in the Industrial Arts. 

"Whoever has watched with any discernment, the wide-eyed 
gaze of the infant at surrounding objects, knows very well that 
education begins early, whether we intend it or not; and that 
those fingerings and suckiugs of everything that it can get hold 
of, those open-mouthed listening to every sound, are the first step 
in the series which end in the discovery of planets, the invention 
of calculating engines, the production of great paintings, or the 
compositions of symphonies and operas. These activities from 
the very first being spontaneous and inevitable, it is the duty to 
supply the material in due variety on which children can exercise 
themselves." — Herbert Spencer. 

Play is the natural occupation of children. At a 
very tender age this play takes a creative direction. 
The child wants to play something that will give exer- 
cise to his inventive genius. He wants to make some- 
thing. He wants to play farmer and plant something, 
play at carpenter and build something, at merchant 
and sell something, at dentist and fill something's 
teeth, at railroad and transport something. A little 
three-year-old daughter of a physician daily asked her 
father for pepsin to cure her doll of indigestion. 

Since God and nature has ordained that men should 
earn their bread in field, factory, and professional work, 
children are born with a predisposition to their lot in 
life, and begin early and eagerly practicing in sport 
what they will later do in earnest and applied work. 

215 



216 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



All things are glad of the gift of life and express it 
in their own way. The little birds fly and sing their 
joy. The squirrels climb trees, chatter and leap from 
branch to branch. Insects and fishes dive, roam and 
dart through the water. Each is so happy in the gift 
of life that it could live it over and over again forever. 
But each finds happiness in the exercise of its faculties 
and in its own specific way. 

But the little human being finds his delight in the 
exercise of his creative genius. He wants to play the 
craft at which the older work. The child's play parallels 
the employment of older people. Whatever grown up 
folks do in work, the child does in play; imitating in 
his puerile sports all he sees going on in field, factory, 
school, church, kitchen, or nursery. 

In these pursuits the healthy child spares himself no 
exertion, pursuing joyful play to his exhaustion. After 
copying and borrowing all human pursuits as matter 
for play, he still has time and energy for games and a 
thousand inventions of his own, walking, running, 
leaping, somersaulting, seeing, hearing, associating. 

But what does all this playful imitation of the pur- 
suits of older people mean? Has it any purpose to 
serve in the economy of nature? Does it mean any- 
thing more than free activity engendered by happiness 
and well being? If some children played and others 
did not, would they all have an equal start in the series 
and applied work of life when they come to be workers? 

It is certain the child has no other end in view but 
his own amusement. It is a benevolent provision of 
the Supreme Being that fills up childhood with such 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 217 

delightful pastime, giving them something to do merely 
for the sake of doing and the happiness it aflfords. The 
little useless being, wholly absorbed in juvenile sports, 
forgets himself and the slowly passing weeks and years 
which would hang so heavily if he had nothing to do 
but watch and wait. The impatient little one, when he 
has no entertainment for the present and is anticipating 
something on the morrow, cries out in bitter despair, 
*' To-morrow will never come." The employment of 
play does fill a great chasm between the impotency of 
infancy and the later period when he will be a produc- 
tive worker. 

But this constructive play is more than a temporary 
amusement. It resolves itself into an education. It is 
nature's apprenticeship for the employment and respon- 
sibilities of later life. It is nature's training school 
where the child receives a preliminary education of 
mind, eye, ear, and is indispensably necessary to the 
work of manhood and womanhood. Without this "play 
work" children would never become working men and 
women. Education by repeated effort, skill acquired by 
doing the same thing over and over again, are the con- 
ditions of human advancement and development. That 
time and practice are necessary to perfect a business, is 
a fundamental axiom of every art. Consequently, it is 
a recognized fact that every trade must have its appren- 
ticeship. 

Man is a creature of education. Genius must be de- 
veloped by culture and skill acquired by practice. If 
the mind must be educated to perceive and plan, the 
hand also must be educated to execute. Dexterity is 



218 CHILD -PLAY, OB 



not natural to the child. On the contrary, what a 
flabby, awkward, ridiculous thing the child is in his 
first efforts at self-help. The little stumbler is black 
and blue with bruises from his rash endeavor to stand 
" lonie. " At first his chubby fingers are all thumbs. If 
he attempts to dress himself he is almost certain to get 
his frock wrong end up. After mumbling and fumb- 
ling at a button for forty minutes, he finally succeeds in 
buttoning the middle of his dress on one side, the 
lower corner on the other. He is sure to put one stock- 
ing on wrong side foremost. By some art, lost to adults 
even were they inclined to attempt it, he washes the 
dirt into streaks on his face, combs his hair into kinks 
and knots, and finally ends up with breaking the comb. 
The crude little creature cannot feed himself without 
missing his mouth and spilling half his food on his 
bib. In turning the page of a book he tears it more 
than he turns it. Fond of whittling, he never fails 
to miss the stick and cut his fingers. In shaking 
hands he is sure to give the wrong hand, and his effort 
at politeness ends in a lecture from mamma : " Don't 
be so awkward, and give the gentleman the other 
hand." 

A restless little lump of humanity vainly trying to 
scale the sides of his cradle and make his debut into the 
world, seized the watch of a lady who was stooping over 
the cradle to give some quieting attention, and, like a 
little chicken, tried to swallow it whole. Up to this 
time he had but one idea of life, he lived to eat ; but one 
idea of the world, it afforded something to eat ; but one 
idea of the use of hands, to put things to his mouth. 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 219 

The lady said, " Not mouth, dear, but ear," first putting 
the watch to her own ear then to his. The little imi- 
tator caught the idea and wabbled the watch to his own 
ear, and lo, what a discovery ! Then, his face all aglow 
with wonder and amazement, he wabbled the watch to 
the ear of his sister. He had now discovered himself 
in possession of two senses, taste and hearing. The 
world now had in it two kinds of things — things to eat 
and things to hear. Hands now had two uses, to put 
things to the mouth and to put things to the ear. De- 
lighted with this newly acquired knowledge, he wanted 
all the world to share in his wonderful discovery, that 
the world had something in it to hear and not to eat. 
He repeatedly brought things to his ear in the exercise 
of this newly discovered power. 

The interesting part was the difficulty exper- 
ienced in giving the hand the new turn, that carried 
things to the ear, instead of the mouth. The little 
clumsy hand, after being trained a hundred times a day 
for at least a hundred days, had acquired skill to go 
straight to the mouth every time. But to put the hand 
to the ear was a new use of hands, and new skill must 
be acquired. When diverted from the mouthward 
course the muscles refused to obey the mandate of his 
will, and it was curious to see the uneducated hand 
floundering about in a lost and bewildered way when it 
tried to reach the ear. 

Dexterous hands and nimble fingers are hands and 
fingers which long have been trained to skill and grace 
of motion and touch. Physical culture, educated feet 



220 CHLLD - PLAY, OR 



and fingers are essential to success in all branches of 
industry. 

Charles Francois Felu, " the armless man," was an 
artist by inborn taste and talent, but he had neither 
arms nor hands to execute his designs. But, fired with 
ambition, he resolved to make himself a master artist. 
By patient and persevering efibrt he trained his feet 
and toes to perform the duties of hands and fingers. 
With feet and toes he handled his easel and canvas, 
with brush between his toes he mixed his paint, gave 
those magic touches and produced those enchanting 
paintings which made the armless artist famous among 
painters. It required time, patient and persevering 
efibrt to train his toes to handle the brush, mix the 
colors, and execute those marvelous touches of genius. 

The same is true of the long and practical training 
required to fit the eye, the ear, the hands, and the feet 
of each individual to perform the ordinary duties of life. 

This preliminary education of the nerve, muscle, and 
limb is largely acquired in the natural play activity 
before the child is conscious of being trained. Some 
inborn impulse starts the little restless creature going and 
he gains the skillful use of the members of his body by 
using them. The child makes a beginning as trained 
athlete when he first climbs up with the aid of a chair 
and balances his body on his feet. His first tottering 
steps are steps in that direction. His playful walking, 
running, leaping, somersaulting are progressive achieve- 
ments in bodily education. He has unconsciously by 
this self-education gained command, more or less, of all 
the members of his body before he ever thought of 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 221 

physical culture. Self-impelling and self-directing 
instincts set the child going, and then he is in a large 
measure educated by his own activity. The child 
learns to see and hear by seeing and hearing ; he learns 
to walk by walking ; he learns to talk by talking ; he 
learns to work by working ; he acquires knowledge and 
skill by practice. Devotion to art makes the child an 
artist. The mechanic is made by working at his trade. 
The Comenian maxim: "We learn to do by doing," is 
of universal application in gaining command of muscle 
and acquiring skill in the industrial arts. 

But the first lessons are learned in that natural activ- 
ity called play. Play made the hand grow into strength, 
and play taught it skill. Play developed the lower 
limbs into strong supports for the body and play edu- 
cated them into obedience of the will in walking from 
place to place. It was the natural play activity which 
educated the eye, the ear, and the tongue to see, hear 
and speak, for we all had gained practical control of 
these organs of the body before we had received any 
conscious intelligent training in this direction. Play 
built the body and play trained it into useful activity. 

THE FIRST LESSONS IN INDUSTRIAL ART ARE LEARNED 
THROUGH PLAY. 

Creative genius and productive labor are as natural 
to man as seeing, hearing, walking, talking, and all 
learned the same way by time and practice. The 
resources of earth, air, field and forest, were given to 
human beings to make what they could out of them. 
As the world was created a workshop full of material 



222 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



ready for the head and hand of man, so man was also 
created a worker with head and hand ready for the 
world. Together with the evolution of the human 
body there was an involution of thought, reason, mech- 
anism, artistic taste and inclinations. The craft of all 
nature was inborn in the human brain. The human 
being carries the world in his head with all its history, 
science and invention. As the oak is in the acorn 
awaiting development, so all the secrets of nature are 
inborn in human nature, and at the touch of outside 
things the mind self-kindled knows its own and what 
use to make of it. 

As the child begins to get on his feet the mind begins 
to awaken into activity. Self-born impulses come 
streaming through the brain and each little human 
being feels himself born a worker, an artist, a scientist, 
a historian, a lover, a worshiper, and he instinctively 
goes to work in the direction which nature intended. 

In those old arbitrary times, when men neglected 
nature and blindly followed custom, it was thought 
essential to success in life to bind the child to some 
skilled workman as an apprentice. The youngster was 
usually bound to the trade which the father desired 
him to take ; for the child's tastes were not generally 
consulted. From two to ten years were consumed in 
learning his trade. Often the apprentice became the 
bond servant of his master, and it was thought proper 
for him to begin at the bottom and do all the dirty, 
disagreeable work of the establishment. He was 
starved and flogged more than instructed, for these 
underlings had no rights the master workman was 



SELF -EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 223 

bound to respect. This bound apprentice at ten years 
of age let go of play forever and took hold of work with 
a vengeance. The best and sweetest years of his life 
were ground down under this tyranny falsely called 
"Learning a trade." 

In the progress of civilization, and in the interests of 
humanity, industrial schools have taken the place of 
the old-fashioned apprenticeship. These schools give 
instruction in every branch of manual employment 
from rolling the dough and baking a cake to railroad 
and electrical engineering. 

But nature anticipated all this and made sweet play, 
if not a substitute for industrial training, at least an 
important auxiliary. In-born impulses set children 
going and educate them largely by their own joyful 
activity. Their puerile sports, nature's apprenticeship 
and industrial school combined in one, parallels all 
human pursuit and keeps pace with advancing civiliza- 
tion. 

As new institutions and new devices are brought into 
use, the child learns new plays and practices those new 
things in his juvenile sport. The child of the ancient 
Mound Builder played at making mounds. The child 
of the Nomad played at keeping flocks and herds. The 
child of Robert Raikes played at organizing Sunday- 
schools. The child of Edison played at making tele- 
graphs, telephones and kindling of electric lights. And 
to day everything done under the sun by grown-up 
folks is played under the sun by children ; not under the 
exactions of a harsh teacher, but for the pleasure the 
play affords. 



221 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



An observer of a happy group of children engaged 
in play exclaims, " What exuberance of life ! What 
boundless enjoyment ! What endless delight !" Nature 
has made this training school so needful for children, 
also so attractive we can't keep them out of it. They 
cry for it and must have it, all because they must have 
it or be forever idiots. The happy little workers are 
taking lessons in all the trades, and yet are not con- 
scious of taking lessons in any. 

Froebel caught some dim glimpses of this. Seeing 
children so busy and so joyful in their plans and make- 
believes he said, "What if we could give the child that 
which is called education through his voluntary activ- 
ity, and have him always as eager as he is at play.'' 
The child gets an education in this way whether we are 
willing to give it or not. Rightly interpreted play is 
certainly a spontaneous, self-education in business, the 
beginning of industrial training. Well directed play 
grows into work, grows into sociability, into morality, 
and it even grows into the reverent worship of the God 
who created and preserved us. 

Consequently the whole career of human activity is 
lived over twice, once in impulsive play, once in de- 
signed and applied work. Children do not let go play 
to take hold of work. They grow out of play into work 
as naturally as the flowers develop into fruit. 

There are two schools, the play school and the book 
school. In the book school the child is taught by the 
aid of teachers ; in the play school he is self-taught. 

One who wondered at the wisdom and venerated the 
greatness of Descartes had a curiosity to see his library. 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 225 

The obliging old philosopher led the way into a room 
filled with specimens collected from the whole realm of 
nature. Descartes pointing to plants, birds, fishes, and 
minerals collected and arranged in the most artistic 
and scientific order, said "These are my books." The 
great naturalist, discarding the traditions of the past, 
became a student of things. By communing with nat- 
ure he discovered a new philosophy and made a new 
era in science. 

In like manner, in the play school, the child is 
brought in living contact with nature and becomes a 
student of things. Plato imagined he saw in the child 
two kinds of knowledge, the acquired and unacquired. 
It was easy to trace the origin of the acquired knowl- 
edge. It was learned from parents and instructors. It 
was spelled out from books and whipped in with birch. 
But this unacquired knowledge. How came the child 
in possession of that? The little urchin had neither 
sought nor toiled for it. It seemed to be an accumu- 
lated store of wisdom, which at birth is slumbering 
down deep in the bosom of the child, and by a little 
stirring and suggesting is awakened into active opera- 
tion, and the child at once knows the world and how to 
get through it. The old pedagogue seeing the little 
waif in possession of such a fund of unaccounted-for 
shrewdness, suggested the theory of pre-existence as 
the only reasonable explanation. In some previous 
state of existence the child had been schooled and 
flogged and crammed, and dying early, had carried 
something of his former instruction with him into 
rebirth. This learning carried over from his previous 



226 CHILD -PLAY, OK 



life was dormant at first, but was easily awakened into 
conscious knowledge and skill as the child grew into 
days and years of discretion. 

This unaccounted-for shrewdness of many children 
who have grown up without parental or school instruc- 
tion has its explanation, not in two lives, but in two 
schools. Nature certainly has provided a school some 
place where those neglected children receive instruc- 
tion. That school is the play school. The ideal of this 
school is very incomplete ; but its stimulating effect on 
mental growth is very great, surpassing spelling books, 
grammars, and arithmetics. The play awakens the 
mind of the little Descartes to practical observation and 
stores it with much valuable knowledge. The infantile 
Descartes is urged on by the intuition that the human 
spirit is equal to all emergency; self-impelled he enters 
this playschool and becomes a student of things; he 
goes through the school self-sustained; he comes out 
self-taught, and to our astonishment this self-made man 
takes, in many respects, even stand with the college- 
bred student, and by mother wit, earns a comfortable 
subsistence. 

This study of things lies at the basis of all education. 
It first awakens the mind into intelligent observation 
and continues to go hand in hand with all academic 
training. The in-born genius for geography prompts 
the child to climb to the highest hill tops to see how 
big the world is. His natural desire for history urges 
him to the place where the ghost was seen, where the 
murder was committed or where the battle was fought. 
His inclination to know all things pertaining to human 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 227 

knowledge urges him to explore the whole realm of 
nature. In fields and woods he gathers leaves and 
plants. Older people call like investigation the study 
of botany. He catches insects and dissects them and 
looks with wonder and admiration at the larger animals. 
Older people call this the study of natural history. 
Craving to know something of astronomy, the child asks 
endless questions concerning the stars and the seasons. 
He, too, is a natural born theologian. His little, puz- 
zled brain puzzles bigger brains with such questions as 
who made God ? and " Why does He let that wicked 
Satan live and run at large ?" A natural born philos- 
opher, he has inate ideas of cause and effect, and makes 
many contrivances to multiply his strength and execute 
his designs. 

What an interesting volume it would make to begin 
at the beginning and trace the mental and physical 
growth of the child ; by word and picture to portray his 
first stumbling efforts at doing ; his stumbling and 
tumbling in his first attempt at walking; his stuttering 
and stammering in his first attempt at talking ; his rude 
and ridiculous contrivances in his first attempt at in- 
vention ; his awkwardness and barbarism in his first 
attempt at sociability ; and how, by ten thousand times 
ten thousand stumblings and strayings, he gradually ac- 
quired an intelligent mind, a dextrous hand, nimble 
fingers, a graceful and manly carriage and skill in the 
industrial arts. 



CHAF^KR XII. 



The Use of Toys a Self-Education in the Use of Tools. 

" Toys refer the mind and habits of children to home econ- 
omy, husbandry and mechanical labor. Children who have no 
toys seize realities very late, and never form ideals. Tell us what 
your children play with and we will tell you what sort of men 
and women they will become." — Dr. E. Seguin. 

Once when the world was young and many strange 
things were happening the horses and lions went to 
war. In the wild wilderness and tangled jungles many 
a bloody battle was fought, but it was claws and teeth 
against heels and teeth ; brute force against brute force, 
and the strongest brute was king of the world. 

Between the equine and leonine tribes the struggles 
had been long and fierce. Many horses had been de- 
voured. The scale of victory was turning in favor of 
the lions, when the panic-stricken horses sought the aid 
of man to save them from death and destruction. 

Human beings, physically weaker than the animals 
which thronged about them in the primeval forests, up 
to this time had remained silent observers of the san- 
guinary war of beasts and the tumultuous convulsions 
of nature. But now the men agreed to be their allies 
if the horses would take them on their back. The con- 
ditions were accepted, and away the mounted men 
galloped to battle and to victory. The united force of 
horses and riders soon drove the lions to their dens in 
the wilderness. 

229 



230 CHILD -PLAY, OB 



This victory excited ambition in the mind of men, 
and they conspired to keep their seat in the saddle. For 
this purpose the bridle and bit were invented, and the 
horse was forever subjugated to human use. Next the 
spear and yoke were constructed, and man had domin- 
ion over the beasts of the field, and the horse and ox 
became his toiling servants. 

These achievements stirred the hearts of men with 
a desire for power over nature. The forest, the fire, the 
water and the wind must in some way be made obedient 
to his will. Of all the animals which thronged about 
him, man alone had learned the use of tools. His first 
tools were rude stone instruments. With the stone ax 
he felled the trees ; with the stone ax he shaped his 
bow, pointed his arrow, lopped ofi" the branches and 
peeled the bark from the tree, and with them con- 
structed tents and canoes. By his mechanism man was 
master of the forest and used its resources to promote 
his comfort and well-being. These achievements also 
inaugurated moving day — moving from the cave to the 
tent. 

Next bronze and iron were discovered. The use of 
these metals developed numberless devices by which 
one after another human beings gained the mastery 
over the elements of nature. Agricultural instruments 
were invented, and by their use the fields were con- 
quered. The wild woods and wild weeds were removed 
and cultivated fields gave grain, fruit and clothing to 
their owners. 

Bridges and ships were constructed, and man had 
dominion over the rushing river and tempestuous deep. 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 231 

By his mechanism he yoked fire and water, subdued the 
storm winds and the terrific lightnings. Human inge- 
nuity invented instruments not only for the transporta- 
tion of goods from place to place, but instruments were 
invented for the transportation of human thought ; for 
the transportation of the human voice and for the 
transmission of man's own handwriting without regard 
to time or space. 

It was the invention of tools that inaugurated the 
beginning of civilization. Since that day the discovery 
of every new tool has been a new acquisition of human 
power, and marked a new epoch in human progress. 
The elements of earth and sky obey his will and it was 
the use of tools that made the conquest. Tools have 
cleared the forest, drained the swamp, builded the 
house, dug the mine, bridged the rivers, converted the 
ocean into a ferry ; tools have set the journals, pistons, 
and trip-hammers going; tools have built the great 
cities, covered the land with a net-work of steel and 
the ocean with great steamers. Tools giving full com- 
mand of nature's resources have enabled man to manu- 
facture everything that can supply human want, delight 
human taste and gratify human pride. 

Through the use of tools of his own contriving, man 
has climbed up out of the defenseless animal into the 
thinking, feeling, aspiring master of the world. To-day 
seated on the horse, he not only has dominion over the 
beasts of the field, but he rides the saddled and bridled 
elements, and has sovereign power over nature; and 
the tool invented by his own ingenuity is the scepter 
with which he governs the world. 



232 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



Take the tool out of his hand and human progress is 
at an hand; nay, more, take the tool out of his hand, 
and human beings would sink back into helpless igno- 
rance and animalty, and wolves and lions and bears 
would again be master of the world. 

Children's toys are children's tools. 

They, like their fathers, are born to be master of the 
world and to have dominion and power over nature ; 
and they hunger for those playthings called toys as they 
hunger for bread — children's toys are children's tools. 

Young beasts and birds are as playful as children. 
But unlike children, they want no toys. Birds and 
beasts and insects enjoy a blessed freedom from labor. 
They have no frocks to make, no shoes to provide, no 
stockings to knit and mend, no books to print, no cities 
to build, and no factories and railroads to manage. 
They eat and sleep and frolic their lives away, and 
nature provides for their wants. They do no work; 
they need no tools, and their young want no toys. 

But enter the realm of human life and progress and 
all is changed. The instinct for power over nature is 
renewed in each new-born child, and success is only 
possible through the use of tools. The mariner has 
his compass, the author has his ink-horn, the artist has 
his brush and easel. One cannot think of building an 
air castle without some fictitious tool to ply the fantas- 
tic art. The Magician had his wand ; the Sultan had 
his enchanted carpet; Guiges had his magic ring; 
Hermes had his winged sandals. 

Every workman has his tools and the child has his 
toys — they too are workmen — at least apprentices learn- 
ing the trade of life. 



SELF - EDUCATION THBOUGH PLAY. 233 

But the tools for older people are so disproportionate 
to the size and capacity of the child. It is like the 
Lilliputian in the giants castle. The mantle shelf is in 
the sky, and its collection of interesting things are both 
out of reach and sight. Measuring altitude by his own 
stature, the piano appears as large to the child as a 
one-story house does to the adult, and the key-board 
seems arranged for the convenience of some long- 
armed giant. 

Sitting down, or rather sitting up on a man's chair, 
is an athletic achievement costing both labor and peril. 
His father's ax and saw and plow could be handled by 
a Hercules or a Samson; but a child could no more 
wield them than mortals could wield the hammer with 
which Thor strikes the thunder from the clouds. He 
must stand on tiptoe to reach the door knob, and his 
strength all exhausted in raising his hands to the open- 
ing point, of course the bolt is not turned. The big 
world, made for big folks, is all out of his reach ; strong 
bolts, high doors, and insurmountable obstacles every- 
where deprive him of the opportunity of exercising his. 
inborn creative energies. He is locked out and locked 
in on every side. These mammoth things are con- 
stantly thwarting his purpose and defeating his inten- 
tions. And yet this little pioneer has the same inclina-^ 
tions, which belong to older people, to exercise his 
talents in congenial employment. He loves stories of 
adventure, because there is a spark of adventure slum- 
bering in his bosom. He is eager to do something, 
because there are latent treasures of thought and 
energy that want to be unfolded and can only be 



234 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



unfolded by their own activity. These quaint and 
amusing freaks, which make his frock so dirty and 
flush his face with heat and perspiration, are the mani- 
festations of a budding genius for mechanical invention, 
mercantile pursuit or state craft. 

Short-sighted people are inclined to look on all this 
puerile activity in a jocular light ; but the little worker 
fails to see where the joke comes in. The deepest craft 
underlies his enterprise and by strict attention to busi- 
ness he will merit future patronage. He is so little 
and the world is so big ; but he starts out with a deter- 
mination to win recognition and success. Short legs, 
short arms, and a small point of view will not deter a 
spirit like his ; some way will be provided to minimize 
the trouble of getting a start in life. 

A little five-year-old angel attempting to discover the 
way through a costly opera glass was rebuked : " Don't, 
dear. That's for grown up people." 

"Hasn't it got no little boy end?" was the wistful 
inquiry. 

Oh ! how their hearts and hands hunger to get hold 
of some little child side to the world, and to discover 
some little boy end to things. Any one who has 
walked in field, forest, or street with a child remembers 
how the stupid thing could not be interested in the 
great and brilliant, but became so absorbed in trifiies. 
The carriage of artistic grandeur drawn by blooded 
bays passed without remark; but the poodle in the 
lady's lap was observed with the most rapt attention. 

Is there not some way to size this big world down to 
the child's size ; to bring its store of wealth down to 
the level of the child's mental processes. 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 235 

Here is the secret meaning of the child's ardent 
devotion to toys. It is the toy which bridges the great 
gulf lying between the child's small capacity and the 
realities of later life. Children's toys are children's 
tools, and the use of them naturally and necessarily 
precedes the use of tools. Children have an inate 
tendency and desire to do many things for which they 
have no ready-made skill — a skill that can only be 
acquired by doing. The child desires to walk before 
he has command of muscle or strength of limb fitting 
him for locomotion, but after a great deal of rolling 
and tumbling and creeping on the floor, and a great 
many staggering, uncertain steps, he eventually be- 
comes a triumphant pedestrian. He desires to talk 
before his vocal organs are fully developed; and after 
inventing a whole vocabulary of baby words and train- 
ing a few years on a linguo of his own contriving, he 
comes out master of the king's English. 

Long before he has mind, muscle or skill to be a com- 
petent workman his baby bosom is stirred with an in- 
stinctive desire to do the work he sees older people 
doing ; and in his play he copies and mimics all their 
pursuits ; and his toy tools are to the work of later life 
what his tottering steps and baby words are to his future 
walks and talks. 

He has inherited his father's equestrian propensities. 
Lacking strength to manage a real steed, he ties a string 
to a stick and astride that he gallops away with real 
equestrian pride. His hobby, harnessed and unhar- 
nessed, driven and ridden, is for all the world to him a 
real horse. The instinct of the architect circulating in 



236 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



his veins sets his mind and hands going, and blocks, 
sticks and cobs afford building material suited to the 
strength of his hands and the size of his brain. 

From the interest taken in war stories, and in drilling, 
marching and fighting pewter soldiers, you would think 
him one of Caeser's old soldiers reincarnated, and rub- 
bing off the dust of his long slumber preparatory to the 
next military campaign. 

He cannot manage a real ship at sea, but he can man- 
age a paper ship in a basin of water, and with it in 
imagination he navigates sea and land a dozen times a 
day. Live tigers and live lions would devour him alive, 
but his eyes dance with joy as he subdues and tames 
toy animals. 

The instinct of house-keeping and motherhood voices 
itself in the activity of every little girl. When she 
keeps her play-house, dresses her doll, talks to it so 
kindly and sings to it so sweetly, she is evidently edu- 
cating herself for the domestic duties of some later day. 

Older people call it tearing the book ; the child calls 
it reading the book ; older people call it playing school, 
prayer-meeting or house-keeping. But there is no 
sham, no thought of mimic or pretense in the minds of 
children. It is the adult who sometimes plays the 
make-believe, pretending to work when he is not. 
With the child it is honest, earnest nature starting into 
honest, useful life. Dissimulation is no part or element 
of child's play ; toys are the tools of earnest, honest 
workers, managing miniature armies before they are 
able to manage real armies ; building miniature houses 
and ships before they are able to build real houses or 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 237 



manage real ships ; teaching miniature schools before 
they are able to teach real schools ; and they are as sin- 
cere and conscientious in these miniature endeavors as 
they will ever be in the real enterprises of later life. 
Their eager play is the work of future years, stirring 
their bosom like a tempest in a tea-pot. 

There is but one explanation to be given to this uni- 
versal desire in childhood to have toys and play-things. 
It is an expression of the in-born desire to be makers 
and builders. It is nature's method of developing and 
training mind and hand to the use of tools ; and all the 
mental exercise and manual training acquired through 
the use of toys will be carried forward and applied to 
the pursuits of later life. Skill acquired in manipu- 
lating toys will one day become skill for acquiring 
dollars. 

But these little, industrious workers, with laughing 
eyes and happy hearts, so enchanted with their play- 
things that they cannot be denied the enjoyment of 
them, suggests another important fact, namely : 

THE CHILD IN HIS OWN ACTIVITY IS SELF-DIRECTED, 
SELF-TAUGHT, SELF-MADE, 

And is casting himself in a mold which will eventually 
become fixed and permanent. Bend the twig and 
the growing fibers will grow bent and forever keep it 
bent. This is a universal law. The garment after 
being worn a few times takes a set and clings to the 
form of the body better than when new. The violin 
improves in the hands of a skilled performer, because 
the fibers of wood contract the habit of vibrating 



238 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



more readily in unison with the laws of harmony. 
Every time a violin is played it becomes better attuned 
to the mind and music of the man who makes it sing. 

The bones, joints, muscles, nerves and brain obey this 
law. During the growing period the child is not only 
more easily trained to any new kind of activity, but he 
actually grows conformed to this early activity, and it 
becomes automatic. This new activity, practiced dur- 
ing the formative period of life, gives a new set to mind 
and muscle, and the child advances both by his effort 
and by his bodily and mental growth. 

We remember well when we were children how we 
undertook some new task and exercised ourselves in 
some new way till we could do so no longer, and finally 
abandoned the work in despair. We could never do it. 
But after a few days or a few weeks rest we tried the 
same thing again, and were surprised at our increased 
skill. After a few efforts, what was once so difficult is 
now done so easily. The previous effort had given 
a new turn to the growth of muscle and nerve, and the 
abandoned task was taken up again, not only with in- 
creased knowledge, but the joints had grown more sup- 
ple and the fingers more nimble in consequence of the 
former endeavor. This after growth of skill led a 
witty German to say, " We learn to swim in winter and 
learn to skate in summer." 

The child's self-education in language and other at- 
tainments produces such marked results because he ad- 
vances himself both by growth and effort. He learns 
to talk by talking, eating and growing. When asleep, 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 239 

when awake, when silent he is constantly gaining new 
powers of speech. His food digests into talk. 

The child's instinctive delight in toys is a self-educa- 
tion in the use of tools with similar results. In-born 
impulses set the child playing his father's craft with 
mimic tools, and growth and practice unite to make him 
a skillful craftsman. A distinguished parson, when 
indulging mutton chops, remarked that " the next time 
that sheep would bleat in the pulpit." The hungry boy 
with his craving appetite for apples, cherries and pud- 
ding has to eat for the double purpose of getting to be 
a bigger boy and a wiser and more skillful boy. His 
brain grows conformed to his endeavors, his joints grow 
supple and his fingers grow nimble, for the future mas- 
tery of the task now engaging his attention. The play 
of childhood becomes the second nature of manhood. 
New enterprises undertaken after adult age are difficult 
to attain because they require new physical construction. 
Regeneration is alike experienced in religious reforma- 
tion and in learning every trade. Except a man be 
born again — reborn in muscle, nerve and brain, he can 
not become a carpenter, shoemaker or anything else 
requiring skill. 

OF WHAT KIND SHOULD CHILDREN'S TOYS BE? 

Playthings are the natural want of the child and 
should be made to supply that want. They should 
honestly be made to meet the necessities of the child, 
the same as any other product is made to meet the 
requirements of the market. They are first needed to 
stimulate and give exercise to the inventive faculties of 



240 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



the child; and second, they afford the means of self- 
education in the use of tools. 

Our magnificent literary institutions endowed with 
all the wealth of library and laboratory ; the lands and 
homes that have become ours by inheritance, and the 
ten thousand comforts of life which are thrust upon us 
without any effort on our part, all have a tendency to 
magnify the influence of the teacher, and to minimize 
the child's own effort at self-education. Surrounded by 
these great helps and helpers, it is difficult for us to 
think of the little blank mind being self-taught. He 
must be teacher-taught, inherit, and not be author of 
his own fortune. Truth should be dealt out to him in 
the form of canned goods. He must take instruction 
by the dose ; and as the black mammies used to chew 
the crackers fed to the children entrusted to their care, 
so now children are expected to appropriate the ready- 
made thought of their seniors. The indulgent parent 
acting on this idea buys a ready-made toy. It is artis- 
tically planned and finely finished in every particular. 
It is a toy-doll or a toy-house, and the little novelty 
seeker accepts it with laughing eyes and dancing heart. 
It makes him so happy that he kisses his mamma and 
promises never to be naughty or tease any more. And 
for fifteen minutes he keeps his promise. The toy-doll 
is dressed, frilled, flounced, slippered, and braided in 
the latest fashion, or it is a beautiful toy-house with 
gable, cornice, frieze and veranda in fashion with the 
latest architecture. But they are not in fashion with 
child nature. They are not in fashion with the world 
in which childhood is developed into manhood. The 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 241 

toy, ignorantly supposed to satisfy the natural want of 
the child, was a beautifully painted, ready-made thing. 
When the child goes out into the world, truth will be a 
natural want, but he will not find truth ready-made. 
Each must dig that fresh from the mine. Knowledge 
will be a natural want, but he will not find knowledge 
ready-made. That must be acquired by his own labor. 
Character, good habits, and reputation are natural 
wants. These each individual must build for himself 
by his own industry and by battling with the trials and 
temptations of the world. 

Yes. The child readily accepted the ready-made toy 
and for an indefinite period was delighted with it. But 
after a few hours, or a few days, he decides to make the 
best use possible to be made of such a gift. 

The little apprentice is to be a toy-maker some day 
himself, and finally decides to put it on the dissecting 
table in the interest of the science. He first tries the 
eflfect of an ablution, and the shyster paint is washed 
into blotches and blurs. Then he pulls it to pieces to 
examine how it is made and what it is made of. The 
unhappy mother becomes alarmed. She thinks she sees 
in this destructive propensity conclusive proof of the 
total depravity of the human race, or at least the de- 
pravity of a disliked uncle or aunt inherited in the 
worst form ; when in reality it is conclusive proof of the 
mother's ignorance of child nature. And now to sub- 
due the power of reigning sin, the child is bent over 
the parental knee and receives an application of the 
parental palm. 



242 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



If these orthodox people, who grow so despondent 
over the total depravity of human nature, were brought to 
despond totally of making children anything but what 
nature intended them to be, it would at once make 
childhood happier and eventually make the world better. 

If children were born to a ready-made inheritance, 
with all the necessities of life thrust upon them ready 
made, with nothing to do but eat and sleep and frolic 
life away, then the demand would have been for ready- 
made toys. But born to be makers and builders, God 
and nature set them going that way from the very begin- 
ning. Their demand is for building material. Try the 
experiment ; give the child building material and see 
how much happier he is in making than in breaking. 
It will cure peevishness and teaseishness more effect- 
ually than Mrs. Winslow's Soothing Syrup. 

The child instinctively craves toys that will be to 
him in place of workman's tools ; something that will 
stimulate his inventive power and train his clumsy 
little hands to skill ; not that he possesses lofty aspira- 
tions or high ambitions. But his in-born impulses set 
him acting in the direction of his own self-education- 
The little, thoughtless creature is blind to his own 
necessity ; but the all-seeing eye of the Creator started 
his life with a push in the right direction, and he begins 
his career on the self-reliant and self-helping line. En- 
courage this natural and legitimate instinct. Give the 
child, not play-things, but play tools; things on which 
he can exercise his ingenuity and originality, taking 
them apart and putting them together without injury 
to the material. 



SELF -EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 243 

Give the little girl a bare-footed and bare-headed doll 
in chemise, and a toy trunk neatly and orderly filled 
with wardrobes suitable for every season and every bus- 
iness ; and let her as occasion requires exchange the 
working dress for the visiting dress, for the summer or 
winter suit. And best of all when she is of proper age, 
give her needle and thread and the material, and en- 
courage her to take her first lessons in dress-making for 
her doll. If the fit or fashion is not perfect, dolly will 
grin and bear it without complaint. 

Blocks that can be built into manifold form ; clay that 
can be molded into divers patterns, and a drawing out- 
fit will be exceedingly relished. The more of his own 
creative thought the child can put into arrangement 
and rearrangement the better. 

It is not well or wise to confine children to artificial 
contrivances. They were born to have dominion over 
nature, and they find play material in natural things as 
instinctively as bees find honey in flowers. Their 
hearts leap with joy at the thought of an excursion into 
field or forest. There they observe so many beautiful 
novelties — robins, bobolinks and blue birds whirling 
over their heads, diving through the air, moving here 
and there as freely as the wind. Around them are 
daisies and buttercups, mosses, ferns, toad stools and a 
hundred queer leaves and plants ; and the bees are not 
more busy gathering honey to fill their cells than those 
children are gathering novelties to work into their con- 
trivances. They go home with pockets, aprons and 
arms laden with building material, with queer flowers, 
leaves, pebbles and dropped feathers. At home this 



244 CHILD -PLAY, OK 



material is speedily worked into quilts, carpets, chairs 
and other furniture for their play houses, specimens for 
their geological cabinets and botanical museums, and 
books for their libraries. 

The toy itself becomes an educator, a teacher of art, 
architecture, morals and even of politics and religion. 
It has long been observed that children who grow up 
with few or no toys, are slow in getting hold of the 
realities of life. And more, those who have instituted 
international comparisons on a large scale, inform us 
that the distinctively national toy is a good index of the 
culture, taste, religion and civilization of the diflferent 
nations to which they belong. The venerable old 
China, which worships immemorial custom as supreme 
law gives her children dolls dressed in antediluvian 
costume. These sober Chinese dolls, multiplied with- 
out number or without departure from the forms and 
fashions of antiquity, seems to have given the Chinese 
children an unprogressive spirit. John Chinaman's 
sober, old-fashioned toy contributes much to make John 
the sober, old-fashioned worshiper of remote antiquity. 
The new China will begin in the new-fashioned toy. 

French toys, a collection of pewter soldiers, swords 
and guns, of doughty theaters and fashionably attired 
ladies and gentlemen, have had their eflfect in making 
France the land of Napoleon and the home of the artis- 
tic tailor and dress-maker. 

The American child's nursery is a Barnum's museum 
of novelties — toys on wheels, toys run by clock work 
and steam, musical toys, mimic tools and furniture, 
educational toys, literary, mathematical, agricultural, 



SELF - EDUCATION THKOUGH PLAY. 24& 

philosophical toys, all calculated to awaken and set 
going every muscle of the body and every faculty of the 
mind. These have had their effect in developing Yankee 
ingenuity and Yankee versatility of talent. Do not 
think for a moment that these little, busy creatures feel 
any responsibility or are in any way seeking higher at- 
tainments. They flit from pleasure to pleasure in the 
exercise of their powers sporting with their toys, but 
every toy leaves its impress upon their budding minds, 
its brand on their plastic muscles, and gives flexibility 
to their joints. Last year play was a delight, but now 
it has lost its charm. For a moment, at the request of 
some little pleasure-seeker, the young man joins the 
children in their amusement. But their games are so 
hollow, their toys are so empty. The baby form has 
grown into a manly form. The once cartilaginous 
bones have grown hard, the pulpy muscles have grown 
sinewy and solid, the ten thumbs have grown into 
eight fingers and two thumbs, and the use of those play- 
toys have grown into the workman's tools. 



CHARTER XIII. 



Imitative Play in its Origin, Spontaneous Memory. 

" We talk of deviation from the natural, as if the artificial 
were not natural. Nature, wh(i made the mason, also made the 
city. His copyings and borrowings, his imitations of the arts and 
architecture and assimilation to the customs of other lands and 
other times are as natural to human beings, as ceU-building and 
honey-gathering is natural to the bee."— Balfour. 

^1^ OUR years had made Carl a fine specimen of child- 
J^\^ ish beauty. His form was erect and lithe, his 
limbs well set and tapering, his eyes black and laugh- 
ing. In appearance he was a little man, every inch of 
him. But Carl had a queer habit of mixing up think- 
ing and doing in a way older people never do. Grown- 
up men and women are capable of seeing or hearing a 
thing without trying to do it. They can think and re- 
member and plan to-day and execute their designs some 
other day. But Carl seemed to be a machine for con- 
verting every thought, emotion and memory into action. 
It seemed as if his eyes, ears and mind were in his 
fingers and feet, and he could not know or think of any- 
thing without trying to do it. An affectionate little 
fellow, at the thought of love he must embrace some- 
thing or somebody — his mother, a kitten or a stick — 
anything that he could hug would answer the purpose. 
He reminded one of a boastful Irishman, employed on 
the excavation of a Western railroad, whose braggadocio 
often exposed him to the jokes and jeers of his compan- 

247 



248 CHILD -PliAY, OK 



ions. As they were preparing to tackle a huge hill his 
boss twittingly said : " Pat, and did you make this 
hill?" " No, yer honor, but I carried most of the dirt," 
was the quick rejoinder. Pat was a grown-up child, 
and never quite outgrew the child's way of confusing 
or rather identifying thought and action. His imagi- 
nation all run to story. 

But Carl's imagination all run to deeds, and he could 
not even think of a horse going up a hill without trying 
to make something like it. When out riding he was 
impressed at the sight of Dick pulling the carriage up 
a rugged hill. Carl was no sooner home than he 
went to work to reproduce the scene. He put the 
ottoman on the chair, the hobby-horse on the ottoman, 
and then continued piling all movable things on top of 
that, till the whole hill came down on the screaming 
boy. 

That he might be properly instructed, somebody had 
told him of high heaven. For Carl to think of heaven 
was to contrive some way to get there. He climbed the 
fence post and then far up into the branches of the 
cherry tree and came down safely. Continuing his ex- 
plorations, next he climbed the hop pole and came 
down with diflferent results. His mother now suggested 
that he had better be first started safely in the worldly 
life, and then she would teach him of high heaven later. 

Carl's rapid growth and ceaseless activity created a 
relish for not less than five meals a day. He never 
failed to go with his father to see Dick fed, and if Dick 
was out at work when he took his between-meal piece, 
he never failed to go in the stable and put his head in 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 249 

Dick's halter and stand before the feed trough to eat 
his bread and butter — a clear case of mistaken identity. 

However heedless he appeared at church, Carl always 
practiced at home what he heard at meeting on Sunday. 
He became so absorbed in his effort to imitate every- 
body and everything that he actually lost his own iden- 
tity and forgot his own name in the literal impersonation 
of the original. Call him Carl when he was playing 
preacher and he would answer : " I's not Carl, I's 
Buzer Smiss." Call him Carl when he was playing 
horse and he would answer: "I's not Carl, I's Dick." 

The little proteus changed form as often as thought 
and memory changed. By a temporary transmigration 
of soul, he was converted in his own imagination into 
the very thing which chanced to occupy his attention. 
As the flitting thoughts came and went, he imagined 
himself Brother Smith, Dick, pig, chicken, boy, any- 
thing, and proceeded to act just as he had seen them do. 

A lady agent for the illustrated bible called one day. 
By a masterly stroke of policy she took Carl on her 
knee and thought to gain the mother's subscription by 
entertaining the child. She pointed out picture after 
picture, but the one that most impressed Carl was Peter 
cutting off the ear of Malchus. 

A few days later Carl's cousin, a year younger, came. 
Away they went playing here and there. Carl soon 
caught sight of a long, sharp carving knife. It looked 
so much like Peter's sword that in a moment Carl, in 
imagination, became Peter. No sooner thought of than 
done ; seizing the carving knife by a masterly stroke he 
slashed away at his cousin's ear and inflicted an ugly 



250 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



wound on the child's neck, fearfully near the jug- 
ular vein. 

There is nothing fictitious, exaggerated or unusual in 
this sketch. It is simply a child life, mind and body, 
starting into active operation in the usual way. A 
month's critical observation of the playful activity of 
almost any healthy four-year-old child would duplicate 
it in character, if not in kind. 

The human being's mission in this world is not to be 
a thinker and speaker only, but to be a doer. His body, 
logically considered, is but a machine for converting 
thought into action. The final result of every thought 
is to produce bodily action of some kind. The nerves, 
muscles, and bones are the servants of his will. His 
eye, ear, hand and foot obey the commands of his mind 
and execute his designs in reconstructing and reform- 
ing the world. 

Such being man's mission, the creator did not start 
child life going in the indulgence of emotional feeling 
and reveries. But nature started him in life as an 
actor. As the hungry infant instinctively carries food 
to his mouth ; as the child when his limbs are suffi- 
ciently developed is seized with an irresistible impulse 
to walk, so the child's every memory is a spontaneous 
motor impulse. The recollections of older people take 
the form of silent meditation. They pause, they ponder, 
they plan, they reflect. But each thought or memory 
of the child pulls some muscular trigger and sets him 
acting, or rather indiscriminately practicing every copy 
that catches his attention. You call it play. This play 
is merely a self-education prompted and guided by in- 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 251 

stinct. The child has no past from which to draw 
experience. He starts in life without projecting any 
future. But he instinctively and indiscriminately imi- 
tates everything he sees done. 

The sensitive plate of the photographer receives im- 
pressions from every flashing light and passing shade. 
But the child's mind, more impressible than the artist's 
plate, catches not only lights and shades, but every 
sight and sound and deed is written there. The actions 
and character of everybody and everything ; every pass- 
ing emotion, smiles, frowns, tears, love, hate, all become 
a memory picture on the sensitive mind of the child 
and act as a stimulus to set the wonderful mechanism 
of mind, body, soul, hands and feet going. Pictured on 
the tablets of memory, they are spontaneously worked out 
in the life of the child. 

Pictured there, they may be transiently forgotten, 
but they will reappear again and again. Nor do these 
forgotten things come back as an effort of thought or 
memory. They come unbidden and spontaneous. They 
return as visions, as veritable realities, seen, heard and 
acted again in the presence of the child. Older people 
who have cultivated habits of abstract thought have 
memories of the past; but unthinking children who 
know the world only by sight and sound have visions 
of the past. The child's memory is the revived sensa- 
tion of images imprinted on the retina of the eye, of 
sounds falling on the ear, a renewal of the sensations 
of touch, taste and smell. All these sensations are 
stored away in the form of sense memories. The small 
child sees absent things as if they were present ; he 



252 CHILD - PLAY, OR 



hears the silent memory of voices as being addressed. 
All these ideal sensations incite just such actions as the 
living, present reality would do. 

The child's memory differs from that of the adult as 
dream thought differs from waking thought, it is a 
kind of waking dream. Dreams are living realities as 
long as they last. The dream does not come in the 
form of things thought of, but as things seen, heard, 
and acted. The dream mountain towers before the 
eyes of the sleeper in all its majestic grandeur, and he 
wearies himself in climbing its rugged heights. The 
dream ocean roars and surges in his ears in all its wild 
sublimity, and the dreamer becomes alarmed at the 
formidable danger and cries out "The ship is sinking." 
The dream home is the veritable home he once lived 
in. The inmates of that home, some of whom have 
long been separated from him by time and the grave, 
are all assembled there again. He sees their face, 
observes their dress, walks with them, talks with them, 
feasts with them, bargains and trades with them. It is 
a real assemblage of living persons. Even after wak- 
ing it requires time to realize that it is all a dream and 
not a living reality. 

Such are all the memories of children. Their mem- 
ories are in the senses more than in the mind ; seen, 
heard, and handled more than thought of. Under the 
influence of these mental visions children become wak- 
ing somnambulists. Every thought and sensation is 
acted out, and there is an effort to embody every recol- 
lection in some tangible form. The recollection of the 
house sets the child to building; sticks, blocks, cobs, 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 253 

anything will answer for building material. At the 
Tecollection of books, the child gets one and mimics 
reading. At the recollection of school, the child apes 
the teacher. At the thought of father, the little two- 
year-old assumes parental responsibility, commands 
and chastises the older children just as he had seen his 
parents do. He denounces them as naughty if they 
refuse to obey him and thus he goes over the whole 
range of human activity. 

Somebody advocating a broad and symmetrical edu- 
cation, said : " Remember the whole boy goes to 
school." But the whole boy seldom if ever gets edu- 
cated there. A fraction of him is trained at school ; 
another fraction of him is trained mornings and even- 
ings at home ; a hebdomadal fraction on Sunday. Sat- 
urdays and vacations administer to the necessities of 
another fraction. 

But Dame Nature takes the boy as a unit and fits him 
for the sum total of life. Her comprehensive way of 
giving him an outfit anticipates every possible contin- 
gency. She gives him lessons from everybody, on every 
subject and in every thing ; and without the necessity 
of paying his money when he arrives at the age of dis- 
cretion (a rather uncertain period), he can take his 
choice. 

The eyes of little folks are keenly observant, their 
memories wonderfully active, and every recollection 
wants to walk forth in some visible form. They call it 
play. But this instinctive play is but the expression 
of impressions made upon the mind of the child ; it is 
thinking, seeing, remembering aloud. 



254 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



If a package of powder were burned the explosion 
would become a kindling spark to every near-by pack- 
age of like kind. In like manner all activity in the 
presence of children becomes a kindling spark ; the 
child catches the fire and explodes enough nervous en- 
ergy to simulate the activity. And when the match is 
touched the kindling of the powder and the kindling of 
the imitative activity of the child are both equally cer- 
tain and involuntary. 

A quiet little girl went with her mother to a wedding 
and then to a funeral. Soon after the child invited the 
mother into the parlor to see her dolls married ; there 
they stood in bridal white. Their domestic felicity was 
brief. Next day the mother was invited to see the same 
dolls buried. This time they were shrouded in funeral 
black. It was early, but that no point might be missed, 
Dame Nature was giving the little one life's most sol- 
emn and somber lessons. 

Somebody has beautifully said, " Like the orange 
tree, a mother's love buds, blossoms and bears fruit at 
once." This is equally true of Mother Nature's method 
in training her children. Playing on the mind, she so 
excites memory that all its treasures are wrought into 
living endeavor. She inspires her children to try, and 
if they do not succeed to try again. 

He does try, but makes a miserable failure. He keeps 
on trying and keeps on failing. But he improves by 
these failures ; each time he cuts infinitesmally nearer 
the mark ; and after about a million failures he finally 
succeeds in hitting it. 

As contrasted with human skill, the perfect operation 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 256 

of animal instinct excites our wonder and wins our 
admiration. There is only one road leading to human 
success. The human worker is trained in that dear 
school of experience. He must first diligently study 
his trade, cautiously arrange his plans, carefully collect 
his material, and even then success comes out of 
repeated failure. Practice makes perfect. 

But the bodily organization and aptitude of beasts, 
birds and fishes are such that, untaught and without 
practice, they know and obey all the conditions of their 
well being as successful in the first as in the last act. 

Has the bird a gland for the secretion of oil? She 
knows instinctively how to press the oil from the gland 
and apply it to her feathers. Has the silk worm the 
function for secreting fluid silk? At the proper time, 
without instruction, without pattern and without ex- 
perience, she weaves the cocoon, a safe abode for herself 
during the period of transition. Has the rattle snake a 
grooved tooth and a gland of poison? He knows how 
to make that poison fang most fatal against his foes. 
Has the hawk wings and pointed talons? She knows 
how to use them with unerring precision in the capture 
of her prey. 

The wonderful sagacity of these creatures is the 
sagacity of Him who made them thus. They blindly 
obey a force which they cannot resist and work all their 
wonders without knowing that they work at all. They 
act according to a law impressed on their nature as per- 
fect in the beginning of its operation as it ever will be. 
The mystery is all explained in a word, perfect organi- 
zation and perfect adaptation. 



256 CHILD - PLAY, OR 



But the child is endowed with a mind and skill of his 
own ; a mind and skill developed by his own activity 
and perfected by practice. He too is born with an 
instinct as self-impelling and unerring in its operation 
as that of beast or bird. But his is the instinct of imi- 
tation. The unthinking beast or insect has received as 
its guidance the perfect intelligence of the Creator. 
The unthinking child in his early activity is influenced 
by the matured intelligence of his teacher; he instinct- 
ively copies the life and conduct of older people. His 
instinct is that of self-training for the duties and avoca- 
tions of later life. Do human beings, by persevering 
effort, bring success out of failure? The playful child, 
prompted by instinct, is always attempting to do some- 
thing he cannot quite do yet. Is skill acquired by 
practice? Nature has ordained the play school as the 
place where preliminary training is given. Does one 
become an expert by doing the same thing over and 
over again? The little busy bodies practice in play, a 
hundred times a day, what they will later do in work. 
Compare the keener eye, the agile fingers and the quick 
intelligence of the older players with the clumsy awk- 
wardness of the two-year-old, and you will realize what 
an education this play has been. Is intinct a faculty 
of acting in such a way as to produce certain ends 
without foresight or intention? All this wonderful 
advancement was made without thought of improve- 
ment on the part of the child. The momentary enter- 
tainment was the height of his ambition. In search of 
amusement he is drawn to the play school with all the 
intensity jOf his ardent |life. Every sight, sound, and 



SELF -EDUCATION THROUGH PliAY. 257 

act sets the little automaton a copy, and in his play, he 
never fails to profit by it. 

The child goes for a ride or a walk with his nurse out 
into the busy world. There in some cases the little 
fickle-minded thing becomes bewildered. He seems to 
see nothing because he sees everything, but he will 
carry home enough to practice on for a month. In the 
retirement of the nursery, memory begins to caper; 
and the mother who was less observant than the child 
wonders where he got all that. But usually he will not 
wait till he reaches home before he begins to practice 
and to make a ludicrous likeness of everything. He 
has a desire to mimic sound. He answers back to every 
beast, bird and insect as nearly as he can in their own 
voice. This is a self-education in voice culture, and 
has a marvelous effect in developing the vocal powers. 
This propensity also lies at the basis of language. The 
child imitates every word he hears uttered and repeats 
it again and again with evident pleasure. The mother 
says, " You stay in and be good while I go on an errand." 
The child repeats, '* Oo tay in and be dood ile I do on 
end." 

"Oh, you little parrot!" 

" O, oo ittle pat !" 

" Don't be saucy." 

" Don't be aucy." 

The imitative propensity at this time makes it quite 
impossible to talk with the child. Instead of answer- 
ing your question the little echo simply reiterates it. 
The result is the little prattler gains command of lan- 
guage with marvelous rapidity. 



258 CHILD -PLAY, OB 



Spontaneous memory is the one force which, at the 
beginning, does all this. But it is a blind force, and 
starts child-life going in advance of experience, pru- 
dence or forethought. Memory pulls the muscular 
trigger, and no difference how ridiculous or dangerous 
it is done. He does not think about it, but he just does 
it. He is entirely dependent upon the watchful care of 
his seniors to protect him from the fatal consequences 
of his indiscretion. The starting mind has but one 
way to start, and that is to dramatize all mental activ- 
ity ; and this drama is equally liable to sink to comedy 
or rise to tragedy. A little fellow just beginning to 
talk in monosyllables had taken great interest in a 
"big" (pig), and never wearied of seeing it fed. He 
eagerly watched it biting the grains from the cob. 
Weeks after the pig had gone into pork, he was observed 
in the vacated pen down on all fours biting the half 
rotten cobs in imitation of the pig eating corn. Under 
the influence of spontaneous memory the child will do 
what he has seen done without considering conse- 
quences. Children do not consider, they imitate. 

A little cherub without wings had been thrilled at the 
sight of a hen flying from the top of an out-house. If 
the little idiot had seen the hen flying up instead of 
flying down her effort at imitation would have been less 
disastrous. But our young actress impersonating hen 
would act just as she had seen the hen act. Climbing to 
the house top and spreading her arms in imitation of 
wings, she leaped off and was picked up in an uncon- 
scious condition, with lacerated feet but no broken 
bones. 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 259 

Playing fly is a dangerous amusement for children. 
But imitating the flight of a hen is not the greatest 
peril to which self-acting memory exposes the little imi- 
tators. Feeding upon the cobs in the pig-sty is not the 
only filthy habit to which the imitative faculty may lead. 

The boy has been known to pick the cast-off" cigar 
stub from the gutter and suck at it and puff at it with 
apparent delight. 

It is especially easy to excite the cruel propensities of 
human nature. The sight of blood often creates a thirst 
for blood in either the old or the young. The child 
who has seen hurting and killing has his mind filled 
with bloody memories and often executes them with 
great relish. The wee, innocent son of a clergyman 
had seen bad boys drown kittens by tying stones 
to their necks and throwing them into the water. It 
was the constant endeavor of a pious brother to impress 
on young minds the deplorable condition of the heathen, 
and urge the duty of sending the gospel to them. When 
visiting at the parsonage, he chanced to see the picture 
of a Hindoo mother drowning her children in the 
Ganges. The little heathen were pictured floating on 
the surface of the water. The good, old man made 
this the occasion of calling the attention of the child to 
these heathenish cruelties, hoping it would some day 
incline his heart to the foreign missionary cause. But 
another seed had been planted there in advance. The 
little imp looked at the picture a moment and cooly re- 
marked : " If she had tied a stone to their necks they 
would have drowned quicker." 

This is often more than a suggestion. The sight of 



260 CHILD -PLAY, OB 



cruelty inflicted on animals inclines children to be 
cruel to playmates, to everybody and to everything. A 
small boy, who had seen chicken's heads cut off with 
an ax, played killing chickens with his two-year old 
sister ; persuading her to lie down, he attempted to cut 
her head off with an ax. 

Anton Wood, the ten-year old murderer, was the only 
child of a Colorado hunter. His father's home was 
located far away from contact with other people. Anton 
was naturally a beautiful and amiable boy. But from 
the cradle up his only education was that of a hunter. 
His mind had been started into activity as a killer. No 
playmates. No moral instruction. Take aim, fire, was 
all he knew. One day a man, having a gun and watch 
Anton greatly admired, came to his father's camp. 
When the visitor departed, Anton took his father's gun, 
stealthily followed behind and shot him dead. Then 
the boy triumphantly bore the gun and watch of the 
murdered man back to the camp, all unconscious of 
doing any wrong. When asked for an explanation, he 
frankly told his father all about it. Anton was indicted 
for murder and brought to trial, but never showed 
signs of regret or remorse. When asked why he killed 
the man, he answered : " I wanted his gun and watch 
and I got them." The father had set the child the ex- 
ample of killing and taking possession. The boy who 
never knew anything else, simply imitated the father's 
example, failing to discriminate between man and 
beast. 



SELF - EDUCATION THBOUGH PLAY. 261 

SYMPATHY IS A FACTORAL FORCE INFLUENCING THE 
IMITATIVE FACULTY. 

Sympathy is a fellow feeling, or being affected by the 
affections of others. Sympathy is two lives blending in 
one life, so that with two bodies there is but one mind, 
one feeling, one effort. It makes a person what the one 
is with whom he sympathizes. 

Such is the relation which exists between children 
and older people under whose care they are placed. 
They are inclined to copy them more than strangers. 
The child's mind is a harp of a thousand sympathetic 
chords. But this harp exists silent till it is played 
upon by some other life. Then the note it gives out 
will answer in time and tone to the touch it received. 
What the tone will be depends upon the hand that 
sweeps its cords and awakens its melodies into life. It 
is certain that the child's activity will be imitative, and 
that he will act in unison with the older and stronger 
life that started his mind and emotions into active 
operations. Sympathy awakens the impulse and mem- 
ory controls the action, so that the child in every case 
will give back just what he receives. He will love in 
response to love ; he will give back smiles and caresses 
in answer to smiles and caresses. To force and coer- 
cion he will answer back with his tiny effort at force 
and coercion. We call it disobedience, insubordination 
or even incorrigibleness. But it is the child giving 
back just what he received. It would be amusing to 
see the plucky little children imitating the scoldings, 
threats and blows with their playmates, were it not so 
sad a prophecy of the future. All this is a repetition 



262 CHILD - PL A. Y, OR 



of the usage they received from their parents, and from 
play it will grow into habits and character in their own 
homes. 

Herbert Spencer speaks to the point : " In brief truth, 
savageness begets savageness, gentleness begets gentle- 
ness, children who are unsympathetically treated become 
relatively unsympathetic, whereas treating them with 
fellow-feeling* is a means of controlling their fellow- 
feeling. With family governments as with political 
ones, harsh despotism generates a great part of the 
crime it has to repress. While a mild and liberal rule 
not only avoids the many causes of dissention, but so 
ameliorates the tone of feeling as to diminish the tend- 
ency to transgress." 

This imitative impulse forms the character and deter- 
mines the destiny of the child. His life and conduct is 
a reflection of the example set before him. 

Children were once stoned for disobedience. This 
use of violence in family government produced a vio- 
lent, war-like people. Human life was held very 
cheaply by those who were trained to obedience with 
stones. Then the rod was mercilessly used. This 
means of enforcing family government produced a gen- 
eration of intolerance and prosecution in civil govern- 
ment. The man gave to the world just what the parent 
gave to the child. Herbert Spencer ironically exhibits 
the effect of this relic of barbarism in family discipline. 
"As to scoldings, threats and blows which passionate 
parents visit on offending little ones, we are by no 
means prepared to say these modes of treatment are 
not relatively right ; right that is in relation to uncon- 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 263 

trollable children of ill-controllable parents ; and right 
in relation to the state of society in which such ill- 
controlled adults make up the mass of the people. As 
already suggested, educational systems, like political 
and other institutions, are as good as the state of human 
nature permits. The barbarous children of barbarous 
parents are probably only to be restrained by barbarous 
methods which their parents spontaneously employ; 
while submission to those barbarous methods is perhaps 
the best preparation such children can have for the 
barbarous society in which they are presently to play a 
part. But civilized members of a civilized society will 
use milder means." 

The United States Educational Commissioners have 
made a wide statistical investigation of the effect of 
corporal punishment on children. And it has been 
ascertained that the rod as a means for correction is 
gradually disappearing, and in the same proportion to 
the banishment of the rod, family discipline is im- 
proved, and the best behaved children are found where 
such a thing as whipping is unknown. 

Oh ! the marvelous power we have over other peo- 
ple's lives; and especially the influence of parental 
example over their own children. What the parents 
are, think, say and do, the children will be, say and do, 
repeating the good and evil of parental example almost 
in endless succession. The parent may try to avoid 
responsibility and say " I will do nothing." That very 
inactivity will make other lives a blank. The great 
teacher said: "For their sakes I sanctify myself that 
they also may be sanctified." There seems to be no 



264 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



end to the power of parental example. The temper, 
the moods, manners, and even diseases will be stimu- 
lated. The children of genial, healthy parents will 
grow up genial and healthy by imitation ; and the 
diseases of the parent will so aflfect the mind of the 
child as to make it sickly and peevish. A hysterical 
mother was the parent of a hysterical child. The long 
catalogue of ill experienced by the mother were all in 
imagination suflfered by her little daughter. The aches 
of the one became the aches of the other. Days when 
the mother could not walk, the child was stiff of limb 
and disinclined to exercise. When the mother was 
moody and melancholy, the tearful little girl spent most 
of her time weeping. When the mother's face was 
bright and genial then the little sunny thing's face 
beamed with joy. Health or sickness many a time has 
become the heritage of the child by imitation. Every 
memory has its elBfect on life and conduct. There is 
no secret living and lingering in the heart but voices 
itself in word or work. The sad memory or the joyful 
memory, the memory of guilt or remorse, of success or 
failure, may not be talked much about but they are the 
secret, silent forces which are molding the character 
and destiny of human beings. The past mingles with 
the present; the thoughts and words and works of 
to-day come to us out of yesterday, and what we saw 
and felt last year is carried forward and influences 
thought and purpose this year. It is memory that 
keeps up the continuity of life and forms the basis of 
character and calling. The play of the child is the 
result of spontaneous memory. At the memory of 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 265 

school, he instinctively plays teacher, and may thereby, 
be influenced to become a teacher. At the memory of 
store, he plays merchant, and may thereby, be influenced 
to become a merchant. At the memory of crime, he 
plays criminal, and may thereby, be influenced to 
become a criminal. The mind grows as it is exercised. 
The impulsive activity of the child develops into the 
deliberate activity of the man. Control the play of the 
child and you will probably thereby control the profes- 
sion and character of the man. 



18 



CHAPTKR XIV. 



Imitative Play a SeIf=Education in Conformity to Es^" 
tablislied Custom. 

" We are in our lives like a school-boy learning to write, and 
every usage of society is a page in our copy-book. On the first 
page our parents set before us their own example, and when chil. 
dren we started out to imitate that. But as we go down line after 
line, we begin to lose sight of what they have written and taka 
for our copy the forms and fashions of society. When we get to 
the bottom, the pages are irregular and blotted. Thus, as page 
after page is covered, the penmanship improves alittle every time. 
At the end of the book we have reproduced the perfect copy of 
the master and perchance somewhat improved." — W. M. Taylor. 

^T makes one feel so odd to be in Rome and not live, 
(^ dress, eat and sleep as Romans do. Such is the force 
and universality of custom, it makes one feel odd and 
even absurd to be out of fashion in anything. " In 
Rome we must do as the Romans do." It is so every- 
where and in everything. There is local fashion and 
national fashion. There is American style, English 
style, French style, style of living, style of dressing 
style of morals, style of politics, style of religion. 

The code of fashion always has been the most bind- 
ing code, and its violation followed by the severest con- 
demnation. For the infraction of the divine law the 
transgressor may hope for the pardon of a merciful God, 
The one who violates the law of his country may con- 
ceal his crime, bribe the juror or go into politics and 
escape the penalty; but to sin against fashion is to 

267 



268 CHILD - PLAY, OR 



commit an unpardonable sin. There is no escape. It 
is conformity to establish custom which keeps man in 
reputation with his fellow-man, and no one can escape 
punishment who ofifends against the usages of society. 
Nor is there one in a thousand who'would dare to make 
any radical change in dress, morals, religion or politics, 
unless he expects others to imitate his example and join 
with him in his new departure. He would be laughed 
at as an oddity, ridiculed as eccentric and denounced as 
a crank ; nor could he long endure the unpleasant noto- 
riety of being like nobody but himself. If the moun- 
tain will not come to Mohammed, Mohammed must go 
to the mountain. If fashion will not consent to follow 
the individual, the individual must surrender to fashion. 

This inclination to follow fashion is not a weakness 
or a folly. Fashion promotes friendship and fellowship. 
It brings society into unity and co-operation. It aids 
in bringing useful inventions into popular favor. 

Hence, God and nature have richly endowed the 
child with the instinct of imitativeness. It is this in- 
stinct of imitativeness which starts child life into activ- 
ity. From the cradle up nature gives every child a 
strong push and an urgent pull in the direction of con- 
formity to fashion. The little child is wonderfully im- 
itative, and the bigger child in this respect is wonder- 
fully like the little one. 

The restless kicking and shufifling of the infantile 
feet is a self-acting lesson preparatory to walking. But 
by what paths will the infant feet walk out into the 
world? The incessant reaching and grasping of the 
infantile hands is a self-acting lesson preparatory to 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 269 

taking hold of the affairs of life. But what kind of 
affairs will these hands take hold of? 

The infant has pent-up emotions that find expression 
in cooing, smiling and crying. These emotions will 
grow deeper and stronger with the growth of the child. 
But when the time comes to voice these emotions in 
words and works, what kind of words and works will 
they be ? What possibilities lie dormant in these ques- 
tions? And yet the answer is easy. 

Imitativeness is the one self-directing force which 
will determine this. The childish mind will think like 
the mind which stimulates it to thought. The childish 
voice will be an imitation of the voice from which it 
caught its tones. The childish feet will walk in the 
paths of those who lead them out into life, and are cap- 
able of being led in a thousand different directions. The 
childish hands will play the craft of the hands which 
provide for it. The childish devotion will bow at the 
same altar others are seen bowing at, and bring the 
same offering others are seen to bring. The childish 
habit and character will be cast into the same mold with 
the character of its associates. 

It is the touch of older, active life which starts infan- 
tile life into activity. Analyze this puerile activity and 
in all its diversified forms it will be found to run on in 
unconscious imitation of the life which set it going and 
to accommodate itself to the usages of society. 

The language in which the little human being com- 
municates and expresses his thoughts and desires, will 
be an imitation of the language of his associates. Asso- 
ciated with Germans, he will speak the German tongue ; 



270 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



associated with Chinese, he will speak the Chinese lan- 
guage ; associated with deaf and dumb, he will as cer- 
tainly speak the sign language. 

In a family of four the father and mother were edu- 
cated mutes, the grandfather spoke the vocal language. 
A little daughter of four years had gained sufficient com- 
mand of both sign and vocal language to converse with 
equal ease in each. In speaking to her grandfather she 
prattled away in fluent tongue talk. In conversing with 
her father and mother it was finger talk, spelling out her 
conversation in letters made by the use of her nimble 
fingers ; and strangest of all, it was the use of letters 
which she had never learned, unconsciously formed into 
words. When speaking to strangers tongue and fingers 
both talked at once. If they were deaf, like her father 
and mother, they could see what she said. If they 
heard, like her grandfather, they could hear what she 
said. 

The child of English father and German mother has 
two native tongues ; addressing his father he will speak 
his native English ; addressing his mother he will speak 
his native German. 

Imitativeness certainly determines what language the 
child will speak. The little cooer begins talking by 
imitating the sounds he hears and associating them 
with ideas. When he begins to write he will imitate 
the alphabet, rules for spelling and grammar used by 
others. Originality! where is it to be found? How 
could it be tolerated ? 

Think of the consequence of each inventing his own 
speech, agreeing his own singulars and plurals in his 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 271 

own way. The experiment was actually tried in 
the building of a certain ancient tower. And it created 
such general dissatisfaction that the workmen struck. 
The labor organization was disbanded and the laborers 
went off to a remote part of the country where fashion- 
able dress and a fashionable way of talking still pre- 
vailed, and the unfortunate enterprise was nicknamed 
Bable. In that eventful neighborhood it would require 
something like the miracle of Pentecost to get enough 
people together understanding one another to hold a 
prayer meeting or enjoy a dinner party. 

The faculty of speech is awakened into activity by 
unconscious, spontaneous imitation. No child ever 
tried to learn to talk. The little prattlers are self- 
taught and that without conscious effort. And more. 
What is done by this imitative activity becomes a sec- 
ond nature and can never be undone. The language 
the child first hears spoken is the mold into which his 
speech is cast, and he can never remodulate his voice 
so as to get away from the first impressions. In our 
American cities of mixed population, amidst all the 
babble of brogues heard in street and shop the nursery 
tongue can always be discerned. 

" It is an Irishman ye's are," said a Corkonian judge 
to a witness he was examining. 

" Yis, your honor; I was born abroad." 

" That is what Oi thought, sir; yer accintis frightful. 
Ye should spake our United Shtates toong more 
dacently and not be given us yer furrin brogue." 

The foreigner whose body is renewed every seven years 
may be Americanized many times over in bone, muscle 



272 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



and nerve. But the speech that was formed by imita- 
ting the voices around his cradle cannot be American- 
ized. It still betrayeth him, and tells with unerring 
certainty in what far-away land that cradle was rocked. 

The disposition to cling to fashionable forms often 
perpetuates custom and manners after they have lost 
their original significance. Our common gestures of 
salutation and civility originated in an age of warfare 
and indicated deference or submission of the conquered 
to the conqueror. The lifting of the hat is in imitation 
of unarming the head by removing the helmet and 
placing the man at the other's mercy. The hand 
ungloved is in imitation of the hand ungauntletted; 
shaking hands is done in imitation of a truce in which 
each took hold of the other's weaponed hand to secure 
himself against treachery. The gentleman's bow is an 
imitation of an appeal to the magnanimity of the con- 
queror by offering the neck to the stroke of his weapon. 
The lady's courtesy is in imitation of going on the 
knees to beg for mercy. 

A pet beaver which had the range of the house daily 
piled up the brooms, tongs, boots, rugs, every movable 
article of household furniture across one corner of the 
room in imitation of such dams as beavers, in their 
wild state, build across streams. The folks laughed to 
see this little creature, wrapped in furs, so industriously 
and perseveringly building those high and dry dams 
with never a drop of water in them. 

The beaver, in turn, might have laughed to see 
human beings in their daily intercourse still perpetuat- 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 273 

ing those barbarous bows, hand shakes, and other war 
ceremonies after the war had all gone out of them. 

Dam building is the dominating instinct of the 
beaver, and the cunning little creature was never so 
happy as in playing at building make-believe dams. 
Imitativeness is the dominating instinct of the human 
being and the child or adult is never so happy as in 
playing imitations of what other people are doing. 

It is the exercise of this faculty which at once lends 
the charm to child's play and to theatrical plays. The 
theatre has always had its attraction and it is the exer" 
cise of the faculty of imitativeness which lends the 
charm to the stage. Its splendid pageantry, the 
scenery, wardrobe, mask, language and gesture, its 
drama, comedy and tragedy are a success only as they 
are a fac-simile of the original. The lovers on the 
stage must act like real lovers. The warriors must 
appear like real warriors. The wooden swords they 
brandish must be painted metal color and the water 
they spill must be painted blood color. The stage 
kings please by being gorgeous, the stage peasants by 
being uncouth. Things in real life repulsive and dis- 
agreeable become entertaining when imitated. The 
people applaud and the actor is honored when he pro- 
duces a true copy of the original. 

Imitativeness has left its impress in all that we 
think, say and do, and even those emotions which 
are most free and impulsive are expressed in fashion- 
able form. 



274 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



THE EMOTIONS OF LIKE, DISLIKE, HOPE, FEAR, AND 
WORSHIP CONFORM TO THE CUSTOMS OF THE 
COUNTRY AND TIMES. 

The young man often poses as a reformer, the aged 
man seldom, the child never. The little human being 
makes his debut as a strict conformist. He accepts the 
world as he finds it and begins at once to accommodate 
himself to its forms and fashions. He starts life a 
stickler for established custom, and if he gets an inkling 
that usages and opinions diflfer, the usages and opinions 
of his parents and guardians are orthodox, and those of 
dififerent faith and practice have no right which chil- 
dren are bound to respect. 

It is amazing to what an extent the child educates 
himself into conformity to established custom. Often 
that which seems most personal and natural will be 
found, on investigation, to be artificial, or the early 
habituation of fashion, acquired so early, that it has 
become a second nature. 

When we see a little bit of impetuosity exploding 
into a fit of anger, one would suppose anything as 
impulsive and uncontrollable as anger would at least 
have the virtue of being natural. But the child's ill 
temper soon gets fixed into artificial forms and he 
screams, kicks, pouts, strikes," bites, runs away and 
plays truant all according to some borrowed style. 

Darwin, after a very critical and exhaustive study of 
the dififerent ways of expressing wrath and rage, con- 
cludes people are as imitative in anger as they are in 
language and dress. Dififerent countries and commun- 
ities have each their own acquired style of expressing 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 275 

their likes and dislikes. The native Australian woman 
when angry dances and throws volumes of dust into the 
air. The women of another country dance when they 
are pleased and express their anger by throwing vol- 
umes of water into the air. 

The offending Hindoo has no personal abuse for his 
enemy, but heaps all the indignation words can express 
on the unfortunate caste, to which his enemy belongs, 
villifying and denouncing it back and back for centuries 
and millenniums with every kind of abuse. The in- 
sulted Fuegians stamp the ground, walk about distract- 
edly, grow pale and walk away. The enraged Indian 
is sly and silent. It was fashionable for the insulted 
Southerner in ante-bellum days to challenge his foe to 
fight him in a duel. On the other hand, the insulted 
Quaker, following the fashions of his people, subdues 
his turbulent feelings by speaking in those soft words 
which turn away wrath. The Italian stabs treacher- 
ously. The Spaniard seeks vengeance in sudden pas- 
sion by thrusting a poinard into his foe. The insulted 
Chinaman, following the fashion of his country, stabs 
himself. The angry Englishman assumes a haughty 
demeanor, clenches his fist and defies his foe. He will 
stand his ground and defend his castle at the risk of 
his life. The exasperated Frenchman puts all his 
wrath and rage into his shrugged shoulders, drawing 
them up in such a way as to express any amount of dis- 
like and defiance. These different forms of expressing 
ire, at first view, seem to be a peculiarity of race, but 
in reality are the results of conforming to the customs 
of the country. 



276 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



The English child entrusted to the care of the French 
nurse, when angry, shrugs his shoulders and grows pro- 
fane in Frenchy style. If the same child had been en- 
trusted to the care of an Indian nurse he would have 
been silent and sly in anger. 

Nursed by a Hindoo mother the child would show 
his ire, not by crushing the mosquito that bit him, but 
by denouncing its ancestry as a miserable, blood-thirsty 
set of insects in all their generations. 

A family nearer home than India made much of their 
ancestry. Their little girl, of course, had nothing but 
thoroughbred pets. When her kitten scratched her, the 
little blue blood berated it in regular oriental style. 
*' Aren't you ashamed to behave that way, when your 
mother was a Maltese. You act as if your ancestry 
were common torn cats." 

Carrying this idea through life, the one so trained, 
instead of going to work to make a personality and 
character for herself, would depend largely on her aris- 
tocratic ancestry for recognition. 

The habitual imitation of the usages of society con- 
trols our passions and appetites, our religious creeds, 
hopes, fears and forms of worship. These, born of the 
personality and instincts of the soul, are soon encrusted 
over with popular usage and traditional forms. People 
eat, drink, chew tobacco, get angry, get pleased, love, 
marry, die and are buried according to the fashion of 
the times. Deaf mutes laugh but little, because they 
cannot laugh quite like other people. 

In a certain emotional congregation everybody was 
weeping except one man. When asked how he could 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 277 

remain unmoved in such a vale of tears he said, " He 
did not belong to that church and his denomination 
did not weep in meeting." Often when seeming 
not to conform to fashion we are still conforming to 
some other fashion. Dry eyes and dry theology is the 
style in some denominations. 

Imitativeness excites to courage, heroism, self-sacri- 
fice. It may lead to the most noble deeds, or to the 
most cruel and debasing superstition. 

Once under the influence of deep emotion a Dervish 
priest screamed and spun like a top. Others imitated 
his ardent emotion, and now all the Dervishes whirl 
and twirl and shout during their devotion. A worshiper 
of Juggernaut, in the warmth of zeal, prostrated him- 
self before his idol and was crushed. This heroic act 
of devotion excited the spirit of imitation, and the 
path of Juggernaut for hundreds of miles and the path 
of history for thousands of years have been stained 
with the blood of imitators. A devoted wife in the be- 
wilderment of grief threw heiself on the pyre of her 
burning husband, and the passion for imitation grew 
into a law requiring the wife to be consumed on the 
funeral pile of her deceased lord. 

Christianity, too, has largely been cast in the mold of 
fashion. At one period a martyr heroically died for his 
faith ; others imitated and sought the martyr's crown. 
Again monasticism became the style, and multitudes 
imitated other multitudes, and one-fifth of society had 
deserted their homes and families and were living 
in forests, dens and caves of the earth. Again it was 
fashionable to go on pilgrimages, and these pious imi- 



278 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



tators left their homes by the million and died in for- 
eign lands. 

One kind of style crowds out another style. Every 
example is copied by somebody. Fashion controls the 
architecture of the church, the style of sacred music, 
the length of the sermon and prayer and the cut and 
color of the clergyman's robe. These usages may change 
their dress without corrupting the purity or changing 
the spirit. The great Teacher said, " Not in Jerusalem 
nor in any set form. It is the spirit that makes the 
worship acceptable." 

THE INSTINCT OF IMITATION LIES AT THE FOUNDA- 
TION OF FASHIONABLE DRESS. 

Man is a clothes-wearing animal, and good tailoring 
has done as much to civilize and humanize him as good 
legislation ever did. The human being is created anew 
by the tailor and clothed not only with wool, but with 
beauty, dignity, power and influence. Good society is 
founded on cloth. Says Carlyle, " All earthly interests 
are hooked and buttoned together with cloth." Dress 
portrays elevation of character, refinement of taste and 
manners. A really well-dressed person is a recognized 
power, and people of caste and ambition have always 
sought to augment their influence by wearing costumes 
artistically beautiful. The ancient kings and queens, 
knowing that much of their authority was invested in 
their royal robes, clothed themselves in apparel of the 
finest material and richest elaboration of gold, silver 
and jeweled embroidery. If the jeweled crown had 
been plucked from the king's head and the buttons 



SELF - EDUCATION THBOUGH PLAY. 279 

pulled from his clothes, his garments, his royal majesty 
and his throne would totter and fall together. An 
English orator alluding to the mystic power of the ty- 
rant's gaudy garments, cried, " Oh, my friends, we are 
but as turkeys driven by the stick and red clout to the 
market." Fig leaves would do for paradise but they 
will not do for those out of paradise. A slovenly dress 
always offends. It is a duty each one owes to society 
to dress in keeping with his station, and as well as his 
circumstances will permit. 

The history of dress among all races and all condi- 
tions of civilization goes to prove that the love of orna- 
mentation is inborn in the human heart. Nature must 
be adorned with art to command respect and esteem, 
and personal adornment must, above all things, conform 
to some recognized standard and be controlled by some 
competent adviser. Something like the architectural 
idea lies at the foundation of dress. The body is the 
site. The linen, wool and silk are the material out of 
which the beautiful edifice of person is built. When 
one endowed with dress-making skill designs a becom- 
ing garment those less gifted copy the pattern and 
clothe themselves in a becoming manner. Hence the 
devotion to fashionable dress. 

Suppose that all the preaching against fashion had 
been heeded, and that the praying against fashion had 
been answered and each, disregarding the taste and 
style of his neighbor, should make it a special point to 
dress like nobody but himself. Birds of a feather flock 
together. But proper society would be like that 
menagerie of beasts, birds and reptiles which Peter 



280 CHILD -PLA.Y, OR 



saw in vision, minus the sheet, a common wrapper for 
all. One would be wrapped in the stars and stripes. 
Another like the angel of the Apocalipse clothed with 
nothing but a cloud. No; even that savors too much 
of fashion. It must be the earnest effort of each to be 
wrapped in a mantle unlike that worn by anybody else. 
Such chaos would be painful to the eye, demoralizing 
to society, and destructive to civilization. Conformity 
to established custom is as necessary in dress as in any- 
thing else, and we can with propriety pray, " Good Lord 
save us from the cost and care of each being his own 
tailor and inventing his own style of dress." 

The instinct of imitativeness in dress has struck 
deeper root and grown into a passion because of the 
immense power and fascination of dress. 

Dress is necessary that human beings may live well 
and appear well. But, the dignity and charm elegant 
apparel lends to the wearer, has tempted the vain and 
frivolous to reverse the order, and live to appear well 
and dress well ; and the costume of some society leader 
is chosen as the fashionable uniform to which every 
fashionable person must subscribe. Such is the seduc- 
tive power of style in high place, that humbler folks 
aspiring to be recognized as "good society" often con- 
secrate every faculty of the mind, every passion of the 
heart and every dollar of their purse to the one object 
of imitating those fashion leaders. 

Fashion, the foster mother of vanity, has nursed 
pride "till it has grown fatter than a sea turtle, is quite 
as wicked in its bite, and is harder to kill." 

An ancient Chinese empress endowed with wondrous 
grace and beauty was born with crippled feet. The 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 281 

ladies of her court were seized with a passion to dress, 
talk and even walk as she walked, and went so far as to 
invent the fiendish fashion of binding and compress- 
ing their feet into hideous and helpless deformity. 

Fashion has imposed on us modes of dress equally 
cruel and absurd. It has pinched our feet with tight 
shoes, choked us with tight neckerchief and squeezed 
the breath out of us with tight lacing. 

A survey of history reveals the fact that the instinct 
of imitativeness has always controlled the style of 
dress. At one time the tunic, a loose-flowing mantle 
with girdle bound around the waist, was the uniform 
style, and the dress of men and women differed little 
in appearance. In another century those loose-fitting 
garments have all disappeared. The gallant was laced 
and cased in corsets, and by some lost art forced into 
holes reaching to the hips, and so uncomfortably tight 
that it required the labor of two slaves to extract him 
from this dress cleaving closer than his skin ever did. 

The dress of the fashionable lady was equally un- 
speakable. Her head was disfigured with the foolscap 
tapering to a point at the top, and of such immense 
altitude that the doors of her dwelling must be altered 
to permit her entrance and her exit. Her skirt was 
expanded to such immense proportions that in shape 
she resembled an animated pyramid, and this wonder- 
ful robe was so profusely decorated with frills, flounces 
and furbelows twisted, puckered, tucked, puffed and 
bowed into the likeness of nothing in Heaven above 
and the earth beneath, unless it is the feathers of a 
Friesland hen. 



282 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



Imitativeness in dress has been educated but not ex^ 
tinguished. Styles have been improved and fashions 
made to conform more to the requirements of utility, 
health, comfort and cultivated taste. But even in our 
day, when the authorities in matters of dress invent 
something new, the masses hasten to alter their gar- 
ments to correspond to the caprices of fashion, and as 
if by some touch of a magic wand the popular style 
suddenly changes. The Prince Albert coat, the spring- 
bottomed pants, the Alpine hat, the Oxford toes have 
all suddenly disappeared, and the box-tailed coat, wide 
pants, the derby hat and pointed toes have taken their 
places. The most sedate and conservative pay tribute 
to fashion, and change the cut and color of their gar- 
ments according to the prevailing style. The clergy- 
man earnestly and eloqently preaches, " Be not con- 
formed to this world," but submissively practices, " Go 
thou and do likewise." And his cloth is of the latest 
style. 

A well-known religious sect thought it a virtue to re- 
sist the fashions of the world and ignore its customs. 
In the character and cut of their garments, in the man- 
ner of wearing their hair, in the way they ordered their 
homes, they aspired to be separate and peculiar. They 
even went so far as to adopt stringent rules of disci- 
pline to prevent the trimming of the beard, the wearing 
of hats instead of bonnets, to keep carpets and pianos 
out of their houses. But the reign of fashion proved 
stronger than the reign of the Dunker church, and grad- 
ually their mode of life became conformed to the cus- 
toms of the times. 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 283 

In theory it is conceded that the most fascinating 
beauty is that ugly belle with vigorous personality and 
with taste, wit, style and ways all her own. She does 
not arrange her wardrobe according to other people's 
whims, but suited to her own individuality. She is not 
the creature of fashion, but of intelligent admiration. 
But in the face of these cogent facts, woman's world is 
reputedly the world of fashion. Instead of trying to 
be like herself, she tries to be like everybody else. 
Established custom is with her a cardinal virtue. In 
fact her rage for imitation becomes almost a delirium. 
Her lace, her flounces, her jewelry, her gaiters and hose 
must all be changed with ephemeral and ever changing 
style. At one time ninety-seven out of a hundred were 
squeezed and pinched into jersey jackets, bell-shaped 
skirts and shell bonnet three sizes too small for a child. 
By some occult movement all this is suddenly re- 
versed, and the next craze is hoop-skirt, the bustle, bal- 
loon sleeves, chignon, high coiflfeur and sky-scraping 
bonnet. 

Call it epidemic, contagion, custom, style, fashion ; 
call it education, preconceived notions in the public 
mind ; call it what you will, it is but another name for 
that instinct of imitativeness which inclines us to 
conform ourselves to the usages of society. 

Nor are we more inclined to follow fashion in 
dress than we are to follow fashion in housekeeping, 
fashions in business, in religion, in politics, or in any- 
thing else. And if we appear more devoted to fashion- 
able dress, it is because conformity to the prevailing 
style of dress is of more consequence ; it is because the 



284 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



required changes of dress are more frequent and more 
observed. Our dress is exposed to public observation 
on the street, in the home, at church, everywhere. 
And any proper-minded person when dressed in odd or 
worn garments shrink from public observation. 

This servility to fashion is not acquired, it is inborn, 
and with the budding mind unfolds into active opera- 
tion. The first-born passion of the infant child is to 
wear gaudy clothes of the color and style worn by other 
children. They are equally imitative in their play and 
passion for dress. We have all seen the vain little 
things kick and scream and tear their clothes from their 
persons, preferring to wear no clothes rather than those 
out of style. How unspeakably painful it is for the 
little waif clothed in mean apparel to sit in school with 
well-dressed children. 

A boy, who was the laughing stock of his class on 
account of old-fashioned and ill-fitting clothes which 
poverty and indifferent parents compelled him to wear, 
confessed late in life that he could never entirely over- 
come the efiect of his early humiliation, and he con- 
tinued to be painfully aware of it in certain lack of ease 
and self-possession. 

One little fellow hastened the decay of his unfashion- 
able pants by sitting astride the grindstone while his 
sister turned the crank. 

The mother's economy compelled a little girl to 
carry a red parasol of last year's style. Her little friends 
had teased her until she imagined all the animated 
world was ridiculing her on account of her antiquated 
style. One day when walking in the country, the red 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 285 

shade excited the ire of some grazing cattle, and they 
pursued her with alarming demonstrations. When res- 
cued the child's first remark was, " I did not think the 
country cattle would make a fuss about me carrying a 
last year's parasol.'' The dress of the child is not only 
a source of present comfort, but will have an abiding 
influence on the character and success of the man. 

Fashion in dress has been preached against and 
prayed against, but uniformity in our wardrobe is as 
much a necessity as uniformity in other usages. Fol- 
lowing the example of those skilled in the science of 
dressing well and wisely, is certainly the cheapest 
and surest way of clothing ourselves with beauty, dig- 
nity and influence. God and nature has planted the 
instinct of dressing alike deep and strong in the human 
heart, because of its influence in promoting the well- 
being of society. 

We have observed the uneasy little folks so bus- 
ily doing what everybody else is doing, and so careful 
to do it just like other people do. But who has 
dreamed of the immense significance of mother Nature 
starting the child ofl" on imitative lines, from the very 
beginning educating himself in conformity to the estab- 
lished customs and institutions. The Hebrew proph- 
ets sung, " How blest for brethren to dwell together in 
unity." Mother Nature is training the child to live in 
sympathy and unity with his brethren. By these imi- 
tative plays the child is self-trained to think like the 
mind which stimulated it to thought ; the child's voice 
is self-trained in imitation of the voice from which it 
caught its tones, the child's feet are self-trained to walk 



286 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



in the paths of those who lead them out into life, the 
child's hand is self-trained to work at the craft of the 
hand which provides for it, and the child's patriotism 
to respect and obey the laws of the land which gave it 
birth, the child's character is self-trained to be in unity 
and sympathy with his associates. Consequently, when 
grown to be men and women, people had rather imitate 
than antagonize ; and even where existing institutions 
have outlived their usefulness and change is generally 
thought desirable, people still patiently endure and are 
reluctant to resort to revolution. 

This imitative instinct is the force which binds so- 
ciety together and when people do move it moves them 
forward en masse. In Asia it has made immemorial 
custom supreme law and given marvelous vitality and 
perpetuity to existing institutions. 

But the imitative instinct is both conservative and 
progressive. The lily, strong in its own individuality, 
can grow up among the thorns uninfluenced by its 
rough neighbors and be a perfect lily still. The dove 
can be caged with birds of other song and feather and 
still sing its own song and build its own nest in its 
own way. The lily and the dove inherit their fashion 
already made. They are back numbers bound in imi- 
tations of some ancestral habit which became fixed of 
old. The lily blooms and the bird feathers and sings 
in the ancestral fashion without thought or choice. 

The instinct of imitativeness is laid as deep and 
strong in human life as in plant and bird life. But 
there is the superadded element of will and discrimi- 
nation. It is voluntary imitation. In fashion as in 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 287 

everything else the fittest survive ; and the child imi- 
tates not the distant and the dead but the living, the 
latest and the best. 

In this way the instinct of imitation has become the 
seeds of progress. One has gained the reputation of 
being superior in taste and skill. Others become rest- 
less and ambitious to imitate, and in that way every 
advance becomes the basis of a new and better fashion. 
One specially gifted with architectural skill and taste 
improves his dwelling. The passion for prettier and 
more convenient homes becomes a rage and quickly the 
beautiful country residence and palatial city home 
spring into existence. The improved road under the 
spirit of imitation is extended from neighborhood to 
neighborhood. One factory has gotten a new device for 
lightening labor and perfecting products; other facto- 
ries hasten to take advantage of the same improvement. 
An enterprising city has started a steamship line, con- 
structed railway and telephone connections. The 
imitative instinct seizes other cities, and every river 
and ocean is plowed with steamers, and every country 
and continent is bound together with iron rails and 
wires. The spirit of imitation lies at the base of re- 
form and progress, and is constantly reforming social 
and political abuses. A government emancipates itself 
from decayed and expensive monarchies ; other govern- 
ments imitate and strike for civil and religious liberty. 
It lies even at the basis of Christian patience and prog- 
ress. " Consider him that endured such contradiction 
of sinners against himself lest ye be weary and faint in 
your mind." The effect of this ideal life as an example 



288 CHILD - PLAY, OR 



is held up for imitation in all lands and ages, and every 
generation is growing more and more conformed to it. 
Till in the end, " when we shall see Him we shall be 
like Him." 



CHAPTKR XV. 



Play, a Self-Education in Sociability. 

"Science tells us man's true life is not lived in the material 
facts of^the body, nor in the higher altitude of the intellect, but 
in the warm blood of the affections. Till man is equipped with 
these he is not human. He reaches his full height only when 
love becomes the breath of life, the energy of the will, the sum- 
mit of desire. There at last lie all happiness and goodness and 
truth and duty."— Henry Drummond. 







HEN Burdette said, " he never thought Cain 
isAiA would turn out well," future expectation was 
justified in looking backward for once. 

The child associated with other children is trained to 
sociability from the cradle up. If as the owner of a 
gun, he goes hunting, seven or eight boys go with him, 
and insist on shooting turn about. When he goes fish- 
ing a crowd of children accompany him, and constantly 
tease him to borrow his hook and line "for just one 
bite." If he plays marbles a sharper challenges him 
to play for keeps, and he must gracefully submit to loss of 
both game and marbles. When he rides his pony, from 
three to five chums insist upon riding behind, before, 
single, double, treble and even quadruple. One child 
after another borrows his dog, his pet coon or pet squir- 
rel for a day. In a hundred games he is taught to re- 
spect the rights of those who can outfight, outrun, 
outjump, outclimb, outswim, or outspell him. If 
he whimpers he is ridiculed as a " cry baby." On the 

289 



290 CHILD -PLA.Y, OR 



Fourth of July he must give some of his firecrackers 
to other boys ; and Christmas is made the happiest day 
in the year by the joy of giving and receiving. 

In this way the play school is made nature's training 
school where the child is constantly trained to a social 
and obliging disposition. In his juvenile sports he is 
constantly compelled to share his wild games and toys 
with his comrades. Every hour he is being educated 
to conform to the usages of society and to make him- 
self agreeable and companionable. Perhaps his com- 
rades do teach him somethings he had better not know. 
On the other hand they are teaching him lessons of un- 
selfishness, and forming his character for benevolence 
and helpfulness. 

But poor unfortunate Cain ! Just imagine him labor- 
ing under the distressing disadvantage of being the 
only child in the wide, wide world. No appeal was 
ever made to the social and benevolent side of his 
nature. During the first years of life, which is in real- 
ity the formative period, he never had an opportunity 
to borrow or loan a kite, never was sent to carry a basket 
of berries or flowers to a sick child, never was taught to 
surrender a single desire, to respect the rights or promote 
the happiness of others than himself. During all the 
early formative period his character was formed to self- 
ishness. Even his father in speaking of the world was 
accustomed to say ''my world." The word "ours'' 
was not in this child's vocabulary. 

Instead of universal dominion making Cain happy it 
made him a little tyrant. We can easily imagine that, 
when introduced to the infantile Abel, he looked con- 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 291 

temptuously at the little intruder for a moment, and 
then, pointing to a pile of smouldering embers, said : 
" Fro it in fire !" Later, when Abel begged for just one 
ride on his hobby horse, he said : " Keep oflf the world, 
or I'll kill you." 

The selfism that had the whole world as a nursery to 
start in grew more and more rank till at length this 
dreadful threat was carried into execution. It is natu- 
ral to want the world. The great lesson is to learn to 
divide it, and to learn it early. The infantile autocrat 
will grow into the adult despot. 

Cain did not turn out well. No lone thing ever did. 
A grain of corn had fallen into a rich, loamy corner of 
the garden. It germinated and grew most luxuriously. 
It tasseled and bloomed in all its farinaceous grandeur. 
And when the time of harvest was come the yield was 
a full-grown cob without a grain of corn on it. No 
lone stock of corn, nor lone child, nor lone man, nor 
lone anything else ever did turn out well. 

" The only child is always a spoiled child." The only 
child is an unfortunate child deprived of the best condi- 
tions for right education. The proper development of 
the human being contemplates a two-fold end, a perfect 
man in a perfect society. This two-fold end never can 
be separated. Human happiness and well-being is not 
found in indulging selfism, but otherism. 

The child should begin from the cradle up practicing 
the lifelong lesson of loving his neighbor as himself. 
But how can this lesson of unselfishness be learned by 
those deprived of the companionship of others of their 
own age. The infantile mind is not impressed and 



292 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



directed by theory, but by practice. The order of na- 
ture is to place the child not only in the society of 
older people, but also in the society of other children. 
The child frequently with other children takes on man- 
ners, habits and character very different from the lone 
child. He catches ideas and learns lessons of sociabil- 
ity, sympathy, benevolence, helpfulness and even book 
lessons more readily from little folks than he does from 
older people. 

It was Froebel's purpose in establishing the Kinder- 
garten school, so to direct the natural activity and so- 
ciability of children as to make goodness and unselfish- 
ness the chief end of education. This new theory of 
child-culture, like most other new enterprises, had to 
struggle against indifference and ridicule, and finally 
exposed its author to severe financial embarrassment. 
When lack of encouragement and support were over- 
whelming Froebel with disaster, the curiosity of the 
King of Prussia was excited and wishing to know 
something more of this novel theory of education, 
Froebel was summoned to the palace for an interview. 
The King was delighted with his methods and aims, 
and Froebel was invited to the court as tutor of his son 
and heir to the throne. The bankrupt teacher greatly 
needed the financial relief, and he appreciated the 
honor and prestige this exalted position would com- 
mand. But notwithstanding all this, he promptly de- 
clined the invitation, telling the King that his majesty 
had asked an impossibility. Then Mr. Froebel pro- 
ceeded to explain, that goodness of disposition and un- 
selfishness were lessons which could not be learned by 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 293 

a child alone in the palace surrounded by flatterers ; 
such surroundings would necessarily incline to a self- 
centered, self-seeking disposition. The child should 
be placed in the public school and there associated with 
other children. There he would most readily gain right 
ideas of himself and of his duties and relations toother 
people. The King was convinced and his son was sent 
to the public school. Here the little prince learned 
many lessons of value, first to himself and later to his 
subjects. In the palace he had been humored and flat- 
tered till he felt himself superior in every grace and 
accomplishment. But the haughty little tyrant was 
soon humiliated by the discovery of his mistake. In 
his contact with other children he learned that many of 
them were as shrewd and strong, as fleet of foot, as 
brave and daring in their athletic sports as himself, and 
that some of them were more than his match both in 
class and on the playground. When the royal child 
discovered himself outranked by common blood, he 
went home mortified to tears and lamentations. The 
royal father's indignation was aroused, and he began to 
threaten vengeance against the child of a subject who 
would have the audacity to run faster and spell better 
than the prince. Royal children were not in the habit 
of being excelled in anything by common children. 

But this lad had learned his lesson well and plead that 
in running and spelling there was no privileged class^ 
and that each child had an equal right to be and do his 
best. The play school proved well nigh stronger than 
the throne. The little royalist was unconsciously ap- 
proaching the confines of democracy. The event evi- 



294 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



dently made the old Kaiser a better king, with larger 
appreciation of the rights and liberties of his subjects. 

Sociability is the fundamental law of life. Each liv- 
ing creature received life from another, and is con- 
stantly dependent on others for company, aid and pro- 
tection. The co-operative instinct is rooted in the first 
cells of life, buds and blosssoms in the earliest activity, 
and bears the first, ripe, sweet fruit in human exper- 
ience. The infant in the cradle craves the presence of 
others and gives back coos and smiles in response to 
attention. 

But no where is companionship more craved than in 
that natural activity called play. Children regard the 
world as a play place. The formative period of their 
lives is spent in play. Play gives expression to all the 
elements of character, social, mental and moral. It is 
not in the study school one-hundredth part as much as 
in the play school where the character is formed for 
weal or woe. Play has no attraction without play- 
mates. These little pleasure-seekers know the meaning 
of figures before they know their letters They are de- 
lighted with multiplication and addition, but have an 
inborn aversion to substraction and division. Two 
when it stands for fun means more than twice as much 
as one. And ten times one make about a hundred 
times more opportunity and inspiration for puerile 
sport. It is not more natural for the little drops of 
water to mingle and flow and ripple and sparkle to- 
gether in the brook than it is for children to come to- 
gether to play. 



SELF -EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 295 

In almost any child circle which meet on the play- 
ground at school there are to be found all the diversified 
conditions. The poor, those needing sympathy and 
assistance, ye always have with you. In this child 
group of thirty or forty, some will be precocious, having 
culture and shrewdness far in advance of others of the 
same age. Some will come from homes of wealth and 
refinement, neatly dressed, polite and sprightly. Others 
will be shabby in appearance, awkward and timid in 
their manners. The lame boy will be there. One 
stammers. One is as freckled as a guinea egg. One 
has lost an eye and one is dull of hearing. More than 
one have plenty of opportunity for hard work and little 
opportunity for study. Those abashed by a sense of 
their own ignorance and inferiority feel more inclined 
to avoid than seek society. There, too, is the little 
bully full of malignant mischief, the torment and terror 
of all not stronger than himself. 

Play is the natural occupation of children, and if left 
to their own sweet will, a game of some kind will be 
proposed, and this little, mixed, motley multitude will 
be acting and interacting in such a way as to bring into 
requisition all the elements of human nature. Before 
the game ends life-long impressions will be made. 

No missionary at home or abroad ever stood on more 
solemn ground, or had a fairer field in which to cultivate 
all the Christian graces. No parent or teacher ever had 
a richer opportunity for imparting social, moral and re- 
ligious culture. When these little folks meet on the play- 
ground each and all realize their own advantages and dis- 
advantages. They know who comes with sore places and 



296 CHILD - PLAY, OR 



tender toes. They are in for a game, but how or what 
will they play ? Will they be angels of mercy to help 
each other to better and sweeter lives ? Forgetful of 
the diversified condition, will they join in sweet accord 
and each play with all and all with each, or will it be a 
game of tease and taunt, the strong imposing on the 
weak, all childish misfortunes and infirmities which can 
be thought of exposed to ridicule and scorn, with no 
childish glee or joy for any and tears and unpleasant 
memories to carry home for many ? Will they choose 
some rough, competitive sport in which one gains and 
the other loses ; one is victorious and the other defeated, 
or will they choose some co-operative game which no- 
body can play alone, in which all are so much needed, 
that no one can take credit for making it a success? 
Like a ball on ice a touch will send them going in any 
direction. 

Children are not born clannish and aristocratic. God 
made the human heart compassionate, and it is circum- 
stances or education which makes the child selfish, 
cruel and overbearing. Children love the birds and de- 
light to feed them. It is a joy for them to pluck the 
blades of grass and to shell corn for the calves and lambs. 
They say do not run the colts or pigs and chickens. It 
hurts them. The unsophisticated child has pity for the 
poor and neglected, and tries to relieve their suffering. 
They are not discriminating in their associations. Ir- 
respective of class or condition they are inclined to be 
each for all and all for each ; and anything that would 
injure one quickly becomes the concern of all. They 
are more inclined to heal than hurt ; more inclined to 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PI. AY. 2J-7 

bind up than to probe the wounds from which their 
playmates are suffering. 

With a little friendly guidance from older people they 
will gladly choose a game which will afford equal 
chance for all. The strong and more skillful cAn read- 
ily be taught to feel their responsibility on the play- 
ground, and that it is their duty to befriend and assist 
those not as active and skillful as themselves. The lit- 
tle lame boy who cannot run very fast will be chosen 
to pitch or catch the ball. In playing all around the 
ring, the little toddling, not capable of a more active 
part, will be delighted to stand in the center. Those 
who have toys will lend them to those who have none. 
When the awkward boy falls down or loses his place in 
the game it is passed over good-humoredly and gra- 
ciously. Nobody laughs. That would be thought 
rude. Some will get tired and break ranks and some 
will want a special place in the game. It will all be 
understood there is nothing compulsor}-, and that it is 
nice to be polite and try to please, and rude to be con- 
trary or tease. No place on earth can the lesson, 
" Each for all and all for each," be more effectually 
taught than on the public school playground. 

Such social lessons learned on the playground are 
among the valuable lessons learned at school. It is the 
golden rule set to daily life. Those little pleasure- 
seekers have discovered the royal road to a happy life. 
They have tasted the sweetness of kind words and gen- 
erous actions. They have experienced the necessity of 
unity of feeling and the advantage of working together 
for some common end. They have learned that it is a 



298 



CHILD -PLAY, OR 



joy to be permitted to assist somebody, and that in 
making others happy they have made themselves hap- 
py, or in making others miserable they have marred 
their own enjoyment. 

Two little girls, Eunice and Maggie, were constant 
companions. They lived in perfect unity of possession 
and play. Only one day they differed and separated 
for an hour. Oh, what a long unhappy hour! It 
seemed like an age. And when conquered by the in- 
born impulse of love, one oflfered to make up by hug- 
ging and kissing her oflfended friend ; how gladly the 
proflFered reconciliation was accepted. In their little 
evening prayer, for a week, they did not forget to ask 
God to keep them from ever being naughty again. So- 
ciety is the great boon of life. Out of sympathy and 
away from companionship the child experiences a feel- 
ing of lonely isolation, and the separation cannot be 
endured long. There is magic in being together, be- 
cause each is dependent on the other for mutual com- 
panionship and advancement. 

NOT THE HEAD OF THE CLASS, BUT ASSISTANCE 
GIVEN MERITS THE HONORS. 

Society is the great charm and crowning value of 
school life. But this charm and value is reduced to 
the minimum by making the acquisition of knowledge 
the chief end of the school, and by using "emulation, 
that devil-shadow of aspiration," as a stimulous to edu- 
cation. Children have social natures which everywhere 
and at all times should be given benevolent direction. 
But exciting a desire to excel engenders dislike, dis- 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 299 

trust, and must forever tend to separation and antago- 
nism. From the cradle up, both at home and at 
school, both by precept and example, the child should 
be taught that harmonious working together is of more 
value than high rank in scholarship. But in the 
school-room, where the life-lessons are supposed to be 
learned, all this is often reversed, and instead of mak- 
ing it man's business to know for the sake of living, 
the student is impressed with the idea that it is his im- 
perative duty to live for the sake of knowing. Not co- 
operation but emulation is encouraged and applauded 
both by teacher and pupil. The competitive system 
concentrates all the energies of the student on one pur- 
pose, namely to excel in scholarship and stand at the 
head of the class. Ambition is often further stimulated 
by offering a prize to the one who scores the highest 
grade. In this way the school-room is converted into 
an arena of competitors for the honors of the class. 
What one gains the others will be sure to lose. As the 
object of each is to appear best in examination, the 
strongest will be more tempted to withhold assistance 
than extend help to the weak. The outcome of such a 
system of education cannot fail to be pernicious in 
many respects. The goal aimed at is not the develop- 
ment of good character, but to pass a successful exam- 
ination. The poor little candidate for this paradise of 
progressive learning is crammed with undigested mat- 
ter and squeezed between the rollers of technicalities 
until the vivacity is all pressed out of him. The suc- 
cessful candidate has been intellectually educated up, 
and morally educated down. He has acquired some 



300 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



knowledge of the school curriculum, but he has grown 
ambitious, egotistic, vain and greedy of applause. 
The weak and timid being discouraged and disheart- 
ened abandons effort and is perhaps tempted to become 
vicious as well as indolent. It is his ambition not to 
resemble the one whose praise is so continually sung in 
his ears. If brain is wanting, he is perhaps gifted with 
muscle. If he cannot excel in scholarship, he can gain 
distinction by meanness. If he cannot stand at the 
head of his class, he can blacken the eye or punch in 
the ribs of the one who does. 

It is easy to pass from this school training of ambi- 
tion and rivalry to a selfish and pernicious life. The 
whole course of training has been to belittle honest 
goodness and to honor brilliant success. The student 
graduates with the idea ingrained in his moral nature 
that the world is a battle-field, that the race belongs to 
the swift and the battle belongs to the strong. With 
him competition is everything, unselfishness nothing. 
His first great commandment, in a war-world like this, 
" self-preservation is the first law of nature,'' and it is 
every man's duty to provide for himself; and when this 
is done every man will be provided for. The second is 
like unto it, " self-interest is the one supreme beneficial 
force in nature," and when every man is seeking his 
own promotion with all his heart, soul, mind and 
strength, society will be prosperous, progressive and 
happy. Of course the student entering business will 
carry this idea with him into his profession and will 
try to outshine and outdistance every competitor. The 
minister mingles this emulation with the gospel of the 



SELF -EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 301 

meek and lowly Christ, and is ambitious to preach in 
the finest church with the tallest steeple, to the fullest 
pews of the best-dressed people and on the largest sal- 
ary. It is a free fight. The fittest survive. L<et each 
prove his right to survive. 

Acting on this principle, the youth enters the arena 
of business with brilliant expectation. He, for one, 
will excel by fair and honorable means. But some un- 
principled competitor soon tries to overreach or under- 
mine his fellow-craftsman and drive him from the 
market. " Excelsior " has always been bis motto, and 
this case must not be an exception. He determines to 
fight fire with fire and adopts the tactics of his unprin- 
cipled competitor. With his own weapons he will drive 
him to the wall. And thus life becomes little more than 
a cold-blooded battle. Every man is constantly com- 
pelled to wear both the weapons of offense and defense. 
The merchant, the minister, the banker, the railroad 
official know the heart-aches, the resentment and humil- 
iations that are the logical results of this reign of emu- 
ulation from the cradle to the grave. Men combine and 
organize it is true ; but how many of these combina- 
tions, labor unions and brotherhoods are combining and 
massing their forces for the purpose of crushing 
some other union or brotherhood. The separation of 
classes and the war of interest are the legitimate off- 
spring of a doctrine which counsels to seek first literary 
culture and to stand at the head of the class and then 
all things needful should be added. This diabolical 
delusion has filled society with reading and writing 
beggars. The great want at home and at school is 



302 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



to teach children first to love and be loved, to honor 
honest goodness more than brilliant success, to be- 
friend and help those who need assistance as the surest 
way to success and the only way to make life worth 
living. 

An eminent physician asserts that the diseases which 
cut short human life are largely due to improper treat- 
ment, which impairs the vitality of the child, and he 
adds: "If we succeed in developing the child up to 
the age of seven strong and well the chances are that 
he will live a long life and a healthy one." 

The same will apply to the child's mental and moral 
development. As the child's character is developed up to 
the seventh year so it will be in after life. The encour- 
agement of rivalry unwittingly impresses the young 
with the idea that might is right. The logical conclu- 
sion is that the strong and skillful ought to rule the 
weak. The wise teacher will alike preside over the 
class-room and play-ground. He will impress on the 
mind of the pupil that an unselfish character is above 
all other things precious. By precept and by practice, 
he will teach that the best scholar differs from the worst 
not in intellectual culture but in benevolent purpose. 
He will honor honest goodness, compassion for the weak 
and helpless as the highest rank attainable in the 
school ; and that every one who breathes the atmos- 
phere of heaven is to be comforted, encouraged and 
assisted, as Christ being rich for our sakes became poor 
that we, through his poverty, might be made rich. 

It is a principle of human nature, common to both 
old and young, that we love those whom we have 



SELF -EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY, 303 

helped, and dislike those whom we have injured. As- 
sisting the unfortunate begets a spirit of broad and 
earnest philanthrophy. 

Miss Peabody tells a story of a poor little starved 
urchin in her school, who lived chiefly by sucking the 
thumb of his right hand. Not only the thumb was 
withered but the boy himself had grown into the re- 
semblance of a weird, starved monkey. She had tried 
in vain to break the little fellow of this habit. After 
all effort had been exhausted she conceived the idea of 
tying his hand behind his back for a week or two, till 
he would be weaned away from his thumb. Without 
specifying the thing to be done, she told her scholars 
she was about to do something in which she would 
need their assistance, and for all who were willing to 
help to hold up their right hand. Up went the hands 
of the whole class. To assist teacher or anybody else 
was the joy of their lives. They had been trained that 
way. Then she told them that, with the consent of the 
little thumb-sucker, she had decided to tie his right hand 
behind his back for a week or two, and that she wanted 
them in every way possible to lend the little fellow the 
use of their right hands as long as he was deprived of the 
use of his. They must help him to study, to eat, to 
play and amuse him all they could. Yes, they would 
gladly do that ; and they kept their words, too. The 
result was the little thumb-sucker was not only com- 
pletely cured, but he became the favorite of all those 
who helped him in his emergency. 

Their kindness afibrded them the pleasure every one 
experiences in a generous act. The service they ren- 



304 CHILD - PLAY, OR 



dered him made them happy and they loved him for it. 
The disposition grows by exercise and grows in the 
direction in which it is exercised. One grows sympa- 
thetic and benevolent by doing kind deeds, or he will 
grow unsympathetic and cruel by self-indulgence. 
Every act performed biases character and disposition 
in that direction. 

children's parties. 

Social parties are an event in the life of children. 
They have strong social instincts and anticipate the oc- 
casion with great expectation. The little folks get the 
idea of what their party ought to be from their seniors, 
and they eagerly copy and borrow the usages of "good 
society." If with older people the party was gotten 
up for the purpose of bringing neighbors together for 
friendly greetings ; if the object was to help somebody 
get acquainted and feel more at home in the commu- 
nity, the children will catch the idea and come together 
for a general ringing good time. No one will be left 
out who ought to be invited. 

But where the parents are aristocratic and exclusive 
the little folks imbibe the same spirit. At a very ten- 
der age they are capable of becoming very select in 
their associations and they carefully distinguish be- 
tween the different classes. The love of social suprem- 
acy is easily enkindled in the young heart, and all the 
emulation and rivalry of older society leaders are copied 
and imitated with relish. The little lady and little gentle- 
man assumes all the airs of the grown-up aristocrat, 
and they try to outshine each other. Their social 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 305 

gatherings are made to conform to the usages of 
fashionable circles, and instead of meeting for genuine 
childish romp and riot, they punctiliously imitate all 
the pedantry and slavish worship of fashion practiced 
by their aristocratic mothers. 

Mrs. Smith makes elaborate preparations to celebrate 
the seventh birthday of her daugater, Miss Minnie 
Smith, and there is a careful selection of all the little 
high-flyers to adorn the occasion. Her guests are 
chosen from "the best society,'' and cards printed on 
tinted paper are issued in the most conventional form : 



"■Miss Min?iie Smith's 

Compliments to 

Miss Maggie Jones, 

and desires the pleasure of her company 

Thursday evening. 

Refreshments at eleven.'' 



Mrs. Jones is determined that Maggie Jones shall be 
the star of the evening. The toilet arranged for Miss 
Maggie is extremely rich and elaborate. Her Parisian 
gown of rose-colored silk with overskirt of Swiss lace 
is fastened and pufiFed in some mysterious way with a 
combination of cords, ribbons and buttons. Her close- 
fitting kids and pretty gaiters match the gown ; all fit- 
ting the dear little cherub like a charm, and all sugges- 
tive of a full-blown poppy. 



306 



CHILD -PLAY, OR 



The spectacle of the little prig who is to be Maggie's 
partner on this occasion was equally pathetic. The vel- 
vet suit, silk hat, ruffled shirt, silver-buckled shoes, kid 
gloves, cane, watch and seals, an embroidered handker- 
chief with cologne on it, and all on one small boy. 

Maggie was a spoiled piece of fire and tow ; and if 
getting into her silken instrument of torment was not 
accompanied with an explosion, being peeled out of it 
was sure to be. On this occasion the explosion came 
at the beginning of the drama. And the card of apol- 
ogy due, but which perhaps was never sent, fell into the 
reporter's hands all the same. 



" Miss Maggie J 07ies 

Co77tplime7its to 

Miss Minnie Smith, 

With regrets that previous engagements 

prevettts the pleasure of 

acceptance. 

She is to be whipped at seven and put to 

bed without supper at eighth 



This travesty on forcing children into the false and 
feverish usages of artificial society is paralleled in 
many a home. Just as they are beginning to learn 
life's lessons they are taught to assume airs of superior- 
ity over those who cannot indulge the luxuries they 
enjoy. 

" Train a child in the way it should go and when it 
is old it will not depart from it." This will hold all 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 307 

the same on the other side. Trained in the way it 
should not go, when old it will not depart from it. 
Today the world is reaping the bitter fruits of selfish 
passions sown in the nursery. The children of wealthy 
parents inherit what they never could have created. 
They own and manage the railroads, the banks, the 
stores and factories of the world. Their employes are 
their "tools with souls," and if they can use the tools 
to gain the world, the soul part can go to blank. Chil- 
dren are born with strong social instincts. They are 
constantly on the lookout for a good time and find 
their chief delight in being together. They are natur- 
ally more inclined to be sympathetic and compassion- 
ate than to be selfish and cruel. Much of the total de- 
pravity of human nature can be traced to totally de- 
praved methods of education. Right social culture 
would eliminate emulation and rivalry from the human 
heart. It would make virtue its own reward. It 
would honor not brilliance but goodness. If the affec- 
tions were properly directed in school and in play, chil- 
dren would grow into men and women willing to bear 
one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. 
Unselfishness and fraternity would be the goal of as- 
piration ; not competition, but co-operation ; not emu- 
lation, but each seeking the other's promotion as much 
as his own. This element of helpfulness is as certain- 
ly inborn in human nature as the element of egotism, 
greed for wealth and display ; and if these lessons were 
earnestly taught and early learned in the nursery, the 
Golden Rule would be the law of the land. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



Play, a Self-Education in morality. 

"There are persons whose conduct is determined solely by 
moral rules, but whom, nevertheless, we do not admire. We feel 
instinctively that there is a certain flaw in their virtue— the ab- 
sence of a saving grace. They are too rigorous, too much the slave 
to duty. Their development is in the direction of moral formula. 
They have exalted the body of moral rules at the expense of a 
human instinct and desire. They lack spontaneity and genial- 
ity, "_W. T. Harris. 

" The letter killeth. The spirit giveth life." 

'he readers of Dickens will remember the anxious 
endeavors of David Copperfield to form the char- 
acter of his young wife. But after long and fruitless 
eflfort the thought occurred to his mind that her charac- 
ter was already formed. Formed when? Formed 
where ? These are practical questions. The child has 
no past to review. He starts life without projecting 
any future, and the formation of character is only in the 
smallest degree the result of his premeditation and fore- 
thought. While the child is growing up and thinking 
of other things, habits and character have seized him, 
and before he knew it he was all encrusted in circum- 
stances and customs which predetermined his future 
career. 

The child first walked, then studied the science of 
locomotion, and chose the direction in which he would 
go. He talked first, and later studied the science of 

309 



310 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



grammar. He sung before he studied the science of 
melody. He loved and worshiped before he had a right 
appreciation of the merits of the objects which called 
his aflfections into operation. 

The centipede is one of the wonders of the world. 
Walking on a hundred feet it regulates its steps with all 
the precision of a trained military company. Poor, 
little worm ! The very thought of it studying the 
method of marching these hundred feet, and giving a 
reason why it now moves one foot and then another, 
would be enough to addle a larger brain. In fact, this 
problem did once so perplex the poor thing that it tum- 
bled over into the ditch unable to walk at all. 

" The centipede was happy quite 
Until the toad for fun 

Said, ' Pray, which leg comes after which?' 
This worked her mind into such a pitch 
That she lay distracted in the ditch 
Considering how to run." 

Think of this little human centipede, with his hun- 
dred physical, mental and moral possibilities, learning 
to walk and talk, learning to love, to be social, truthful 
and good, learning to do his duty and secure his des- 
tiny, all according to rule ! Think of him analyzing 
his impulses and deciding to obey one and repress an- 
other ! Under such circumstances grown-up people fall 
into the ditch of indecision considering how to choose ; 
and the bewildered little piece of propriety would fall 
into a premature grave considering how to act. 

Later in life human beings may be led to dissect their 
motives, to analyze their habits and study how they may 
be modified and conformed to right rules. But this 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 311 

kind of introspection in the morning of life would prove 
fatal to that instinctive rectitude which constitutes the 
strength and joy of all good people. Studied goodness 
is uncertain goodness. One day, " O, I forgot !" And 
it all vanishes. Instinct alone can start the complex 
organism of human life into active operation. Hence, 
we now discover another element in instinctive, spontan- 
eous play, namely : character forming. 

The child plays and grows ; plays and grows in 
physical strength and beauty ; plays and grows in men- 
tal and moral vigor. Men and women find it necessary 
to control their conduct and regulate their pursuits by 
self-imposed decalogues. To intensify the effect, the 
ten commandments have been added to and subtracted, 
multiplied and divided into all conceivable combina- 
tions. One moralist makes the ten into a hundred, 
each enforced by promises of great rewards and threats 
of dreadful penalties. Another fuses all into the one 
great commandment, "Thou shalt love!" But to the 
child the pursuit of happiness is the fulfillment of the 
whole law. The God of Nature gave commandment to 
the child to be self-creative and self-developing ; to 
grow physically, mentally and morally by his own in- 
stinctive activity. Then keeps him obedient by the 
inherent delight of doing. No slavish obedience to 
duty is required ; no distasteful obligations are imposed. 
The child's purpose is the pursuit of momentary hap- 
piness ; Nature's purpose is development and the form- 
ation of character. 

Happiness is a powerful tonic. It facilitates the per- 
formance of every bodily function. It increases the 



312 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



health when it exists and tends to restore it when lost. 
Happiness develops kindness, sympathy, helpfulness 
and even love and faith in God. When children are 
happy in their play and enjoy all the conditions of well- 
being, the emotion of gratitude is excited, and they in- 
stinctively feel that the Creator of all is good — good be- 
cause He sends them so many good things. 

A poor little girl had always been clothed with rags 
and dirt, had alv/ays lived in the midst of scenes of 
heart-breaking cruelty. When told that God was good, 
she said, " No. No good God. Just look at me ! '' 

It is not strange that happiness and goodness are so 
closely intermingled in child-life. What is happiness? 
In what terms can it be defined — but in the right exer- 
cise of our physical, mental and moral endowments ? 

Goodness is the natural way of living. It means 
body, mind and soul, all alive and working in harmony, 
and that is happiness as well. The joy of seeing and 
hearing is but the right and natural exercise of eye and 
ear. The pleasure of touch, taste and smell is but the 
right and natural uses of these senses. The natural ar- 
ticulation of the joints, the natural use of the vocal or- 
gans, the natural operation of the mind, the natural ex- 
ercise of the social and religious faculties, all are called 
into operation for the pleasure their exercise afibrds ; 
and all these living and working in concert produce 
happiness and goodness at once. Goodness is the nat- 
ural way of living and means bringing all our parts 
into right activity. All the mental, moral and religious 
faculties were implanted at creation and exists in germ- 
inal form at the very beginning of child-life. And the 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 313 

natural^ playful activity of these busy little ones is their 
body^ mind and soul going into healthful^ joyous opera- 
tion. 

The mental and moral, as well as the physical, pow- 
ers grow by being exercised in play, and unfold in 
obedience to natural laws as certainly as the opening 
of the flower and the ripening of the fruit. Education 
is needed to perfect this development. But in this 
education there is no new seed planted, no foreign or 
depraved branch to lop off. Stimulous is needed. 
Gentle assistance and direction are needed to harmon- 
ious, symetrical development, to prevent one side of life 
from overtopping the other side. 

CHILDHOOD IS UNDEVELOPED MANHOOD. 

The same natural endowments, the same elements of 
character are found in the child of six and the man of 
sixty. The child has his own name, his own individ- 
uality, his own body, his own mind, his own will and 
affections and his own soul. The difference is, in child- 
hood the endowments are embryonic ; in manhood they 
are fully developed. The child has an inborn mind and 
intuitive ideas of cause and effect. As soon as he is 
able to talk he begins to ask a thousand questions about 
who made things as they are, and associating the ideas 
of goodness with things that give him pleasure, and of 
wickedness of things that give him pain. The idea of 
ownership and rights of property are innate and belong 
as certainly to the child as to the adult. The child 
asserts his ownership to his own clothes, toys, pennies, 
books, kittens, gardens and such like. No idea comes 



314 CHIIiD-PLAY, OR 



into earlier and clearer conception in the child's mind 
than the discrimination between " mine '' and " yours,'' 
and the rio^ht to own, use and defend his own. The 
little one has a natural sense of justness and goodness. 
He instinctively shows gratitude to benefactors and dis- 
approbation to malefactors. He naturally loves the 
lovely and admires the beautiful. He is willing to 
choose the good and refuse the evil, and until spoiled 
by evil associations he tells the truth. Using language 
to disguise one's thoughts is one of the acquired arts. 
Children and idiots tell the truth, but untruth is told to 
them more frequently than to anybody else. The child 
is by birth and nature both social and religious. He is 
a born partaker of the human and divine nature. 

Religion expresses our relation to God, just as socia- 
bility expresses our relation to man. Kindred nature 
seeks the companionship of her own kind. Religion 
is an expression of the kinship of the divine side of our 
nature to God. Sociability is the expression of the 
kinship of the human side of our nature to our fellow- 
men. Consequently it is just as natural to be religious 
as to be social, and children take to the idea of Heav- 
enly Father as readily as they take to the idea of earthly 
father. Human beings everywhere have gods and socia- 
bility, temples and fraternities. 

Why consider this analysis further? Children are 
men and women of the smaller size, with every faculty 
written on their minds and souls which belong to older 
people, only written in smaller type. The child of six 
becomes the man of sixty, not by addition or subtrac- 
tion, but by development. And play is the natural, 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 315 

Spontaneous activity of the child by which he grows. 
He plays and grows. Plays his muscles and joints, and 
they grow. Plays his mind, will and aflfections, and 
they grow. He plays his social, moral and religious 
faculties, and they grow and unfold through play. Chil- 
dren are little men and women, and their play is the 
social life, the business life and the religious life of these 
little men and women, and involving all the condi- 
tions of right and wrong, success and failure which be- 
longs to the affairs of grown-up people. The child 
plays morality and religion as certainly as he plays the 
pursuits of his parents. In fact, of all the traits of 
character brought into exercise by these puerile plays, 
the moral is the most prominent and the most constant. 
The idea of right and wrong, good and bad, is always 
uppermost in the minds of those little pleasure-seekers. 
Not only the doll is alternately caressed for being good 
and spanked for being naughty, but every stick and 
every pebble used in play is personified and endowed 
with moral responsibility, and in quick succession 
brought through all the conditions of approval and dis- 
approval, reward and punishment. The ceremonies of 
religion often mingles with the natural activity of chil- 
dren. They hold prayer meetings and preach and play 
Sunday school. 

This inborn sense of justice takes a dramatic form in 
a story that seemed to come spontaneously from the 
lips of a little romancer. Some Sunday school lesson 
was doubtless the seed from which it sprung. As the 
little moralist told the story, " A rich man had a fine 
house and big fields. His land growed so much wheat 



31G CHILD -PLAY, OR 



and stuff that he had to build lots of bigger barns and 
then they would not hold his corn and hay and stuff. A 
poor beggar came and lay down at his back door. He 
had no good clothes and nothing to eat. He lay at the 
back door till he died, and the rich man would not give 
him anything to lie on or to eat." And after a pause, 
the story was concluded with a modern turn, " The rich 
man was run over by a railroad train and killed." The 
child's instinctive idea of justice demanded that a 
special Providence must overtake such a hard-hearted 
sinner as that rich man was. 

Play is man's work not yet grown to maturity. It is 
in this first activity called play where the founda- 
tions of character are laid. All the moral elements of 
good and evil are there. The good that mingles with 
the play of the child will reappear in the good works 
of the man. The evil that mingles in the play of the 
child will reappear in the evil works of the evil man. 
There is a play morality as certainly as there is a busi- 
ness morality. The play morality grows into the busi- 
ness morality. Fair plaj- will lead to fair methods in 
business; foul play is the beginning of foul business 
methods. 

These early influences will certainly prove the pre- 
vailing influence, which will mold the character and 
determine the condition in after life. If good man- 
ners, correct morals, justice to man, fidelity to God and 
a happy disposition are ever acquired, they must be 
sought and practiced in the play-school. These play- 
sports will gradually become more numerous and com- 
plex, as the development of the faculties cover broader 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 317 

and more diversified fields, but no new element will 
ever be added. There is nothing in the man's body, 
mind or soul but what also exists embryonic in the in- 
fant. 

child's play, not a make believe, but sincere 

AND REAL. 

Finding the elements of common morality in the 
child's play involves the question of the child's sincer- 
ity. When we see the little girl caressing her doll, or 
the boy galloping astride a stick, it raises the question 
of childish honesty. The little sport is playing his part 
so cunningly that we are at a loss where to locate the 
dissimulation. Is that romping boy playing horse self- 
deceived, or is he trying to deceive somebody else? Is 
it a sham, or is it a play of imagination? We call this 
playing the pursuits of older people, "make-believe." 
The term suggests that those busy little pretenders are 
in some degree acting a lie ; that they begin life as 
pretenders, practicing deception either on themselves 
or somebody else. Away with this unholy thought. 
If earnestness, candor and purity are to be found any- 
where, they are found in this childish play. Dissimu- 
lation comes later in life. Children are earnest and 
honest in their amusements. They do not correctly 
distinguish between facts and fancy. Their impulses 
and emotions are mistaken for external realities. They 
act their thoughts. But when at play they are all hon- 
est actors. When the little master of the household 
plays the role of father and spanks his older brother, 



318 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



in every inch, he feels himself the person in authority 
and that he has a right to govern the family. 

A little fellow of four or five summers manifested a 
wonderful talent for oratory and a passion for poetry. 
His dramatic rendering of poems and ballads were some- 
times very effective. One day reciting the burial of Sir 
John Moore, he burst into tears and sobbed out. " Oh, 
mamma, I am so sorry for Mr. John Moore !" 

The recital was to him a real funeral. No one ever 
shed tears with more sincere compassion. 

During the war a little child had caught the idea and 
often played war. She cut out paper soldiers and 
arrayed them against each other, with officers placed in 
command. When the command was given, the soldiers 
on one line would rush on the other and tear and de- 
stroy until everything seemed demolished. Then she 
would gather up and count the soldiers which had lost 
arms, legs or heads in the conflict. And the side which 
had the greatest number of mutilated paper soldiers was 
the defeated side. After the battle the wounded were 
tenderly placed on an ottoman, called a hospital. Some 
one overturned the ottoman and she cried and sobbed 
bitterly at the thought of the wounded men being han- 
dled so roughly. This was not feigned sympathy. It 
was the heart of compassionate humanity playing hos- 
pital nurse. Growing with the growth of the child, it 
would develop into intelligent, applied philanthrophy, 
which seeks out and ministers to suffering humanity. 
The child, playing healing the sick and binding up the 
broken-hearted, was simply the playful exercise of a 
genuine, inborn sympathy. Children's plays are only 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 319 

men's and women's work written in smaller type. It 
is the real blossom which develops into the real fruit, 
and their puerile sports merit our consideration and 
respect. 

A little six-year old daughter of an author, like other 
children, played the occupation of her father. The 
ladies of her acquaintance were busy preparing for a 
church fair. Abraham oflfered his only son. Cain 
brought as an offering his flocks and herds. Abel 
brought the fruits of his field. This premature little 
authoress brought to this church fair the productions of 
her pen. For one week before the fair much of her 
time was spent in her room playing writing a book. 
The momentous evening came at last, and the timid 
little child was observed lingering with dejected air 
near the book-stand. Returning home her father greeted 
her, " How did my little girl enjoy the fair ?" An out- 
burst of sobs and tears was her answer. When she 
gained control of her emotions, exhibiting slips of paper 
neatly folded and bound in imitation of a book, she 
sobbed out, " No one would buy my book ! " The la- 
bors, the pleasures, the blighted hopes and woes of the 
unsuccessful author were in a measure all experienced 
by this disappointed child. 

The child fresh from the hands of God, pure in 
spirit, single in purpose, honest and straightforward in 
action, is held up by the great teacher as an example 
of fitness for the kingdom of heaven. " Except ye be 
converted and become as one of these little ones ye 
cannot enter the kingdom of heaven." 



i20 CHILD -PLAY, OK 



The child is sure to blunder in its first efforts to 
learn and practice duplicity. A mother, not inclined 
to see company, sends her little daughter to the door 
with a crafty apology, and the little miss in simple, 
honest language says, "Mrs. Smith, I am sorry; but 
mother told me to tell you she was not at home." 

The father of an army general and president sent his 
boy to buy a horse, with instructions to begin bidding 
at the bottom and go up. The owner of the horse ad- 
dressed the young purchaser, " Well, Ulysses, my lad, 
what did your father tell you to pay for the horse ?" 
" Father told me to off"er you $4:5, and if that was not 
enough to offer you ^50 ; and rather than not get the 
colt he told me to offer you $55." 

Children never play make-believe. Craft and cun- 
ning is not a factor in child's play. But they are vis- 
ionary. Every thought is voiced in words, every im- 
pulse is expressed in action. Their words and deeds 
are a mimic of the words and deeds of older people. 
But it is simulation, not dissimulation. The nerveless 
sentimentalist and dreamer, who spends his life in a 
weltering sea of sympathetic emotion, is that prover- 
bial person who paves hell with good intentions. But 
children obedient to the impulses of their hearts are 
trying to do something ; obedient to the law of pro- 
gress they do the best they can to-day, that by constant 
practice they may do better to-morrow. The one tal- 
ent put to exchange will grow into many talents. 
Obedient to the law of growth their imitative talk will 
grow into independent, self-reliant, original thought 
and language ; will grow into the discovery of new 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGli PLAY. 321 

truths and new phraseology. Obedient to the law of 
growth their imitative work will grow into independ- 
ent achievement, creative enterprise, inventing, con- 
structing and improving the industries and arts of the 
world. 

RIGHT AND WRONG METHODS IN MORAL TRAINING. 

The idea of development of character through the 
natural activity of the child, is not intended in any de- 
gree, to dispense with the necessity of a moral or re- 
ligious education. It is only by continued training, 
training repeated in acts of devotion to truth and right, 
that the child can attain to perfect development of 
character. The play-service is the starting point of 
life to the soul. Play lies at the beginning of mental 
development. It awakens into actual operation the so- 
cial, mental and religious faculties ; but this awakening 
needs stimulus and guidance. If the play becomes 
mischievous, destructive and demoralizing, the com- 
mand, " Stop that ! '' will not lead to reformation. Sub- 
stute in the place of rude play some pastime that will 
turn life into sweeter and more generous channels. 
The child must be taught to respect the will of parents 
and teachers, but there is a right way and a wrong way 
of inculcating lessons of obedience. The willful little 
creatures must be taught obedience to government. 
But what or whose government ? Is it to be a lesson 
in self-government ? Or is it to be a breaking of the 
child's will in slavish obedience to the will of parents 
or teacher? In the land of the free and home of the 
brave, a man must become a law unto himself; and un- 



322 CHILD- PL A.Y, OR 



til he does, instead of being a value to the world he 
will be a burden on society. Says Herbert Spencer, 
" The aim of all discipline is to produce self-governing 
beings. Were your children fated to pass their lives as 
slaves you could not too much accustom them to slav- 
ery during childhood. But as they are born to be free 
men with no one to control their conduct you cannot 
too much accustom them to self-control while they are 
under your eyes." A German teacher declared that he 
had rather manage a dozen German boys than one 
English boy. We must tolerate the feeling in children 
which makes them free people. We may break the 
will of the child; but it would be equally wise and 
kind to control him by breaking his legs or by putting 
out his eyes. To this physical injury Nature might of- 
fer some compensation. But when the will is broken, 
the heart, manly purpose and manly resolution break 
with it. A resolute will is the starting point of self- 
government and self-control. And self-government is 
also the secret of governing others, at least it affords 
others the example of how to govern themselves. The 
child should early be made to know that the way of the 
transgressor is hard. The lesson should not, however, 
be taught by arbitrary punishment, such as scolding, 
whipping or shutting in a dark room. Such punish- 
ments as these are to be condemned because they have 
no necessary connection with the oflfense to be rebuked, 
and are apt to arouse a feeling of injustice. Such pun- 
ishments create a feeling in the mind of the child, that 
some big giant is taking advantage of its weakness. 
Some one suggested, that relic of barbarism, the whip- 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 323 

ping-post, ought to have been retained as the only suit- 
able correction for that other relic of barbarism — whip- 
ping children. 

God and nature have decided that every transgression 
shall have its own just recompense of reward, that is 
rewarded in its own kind. Nature's method is retribu- 
tion instead of arbitrary punishment. Retribution 
means the result of every wrong action turned back 
upon the actor, that every deed brings its own results, 
and whatever a man does the result of his deeds always 
" returneth on his own head." " Whatsoever a man 
soweth that shall he also reap." If he puts his hand 
in the fire he is burned. If he wastes his money he 
suffers poverty. If he is selfish he deprives himself of 
the sympathy and affection of his neighbor. If he is 
intemperate he destroys his health. Falsehood creates 
distrust when one would be believed. The child should 
be taught that it is profitable to obey the laws of nature 
and society : that the violation of every law is physic- 
ally, mentally and morally provided with its own pen- 
alty ; and that God and nature have ordained punish- 
ment showing the nature of the offense and helping the 
offender to build up the law within so as to avoid re- 
peating the misdeed. 

These principles are brought into active operation as 
soon as the child begins to act. And if from the be- 
ginning the little transgressor was made to experience 
as much as possible the direct result of his evil- 
doing, he would not only guard against the wrong but 
choose the right, and in so doing, develop the elements 
of purity and strength of character. 



324 CHILD - PLAY, OB 



The child was whipped, starved and shut in a dark 
room for petty stealing. By this arbitrary punish- 
ment he was perhaps only lowered in his self-respect, 
and naturally grew to be a thief. But if when a child, 
for a like offense, he had been given a purse of his own and 
a plot of ground where he could raise vegetables, fruits 
or poultry for the market, in this way he would have 
developed a sense of ownership, a sense of the origin 
and sacredness of property, the lack of which had been 
the cause of his offense. This method would at once 
develop the weak side of his nature and teach him les- 
sons of creative industry. 



CHAPTKR XVII. 



Play Prophetic of Taste, Talent and Future Pursuit. 

"To every human soul nature has added a little violence of 
direction in its own path ; a shove in its own way."— Emekson. 

" The Caesars, and Michael Angelos, and Napoleons, and 
Edisons have become what they are by first finding out what they 
were fitted to be, and then by constantly, untiringly, resistlessly 
making themselves such." — Henry Drummond. 

^^HE fact has long been observed that some omen 
^-^ hovers the life of the child born to distinction. 

Legend says " A wolf suckled Romulus ;" " and that 
a lambent flame played over the cradle of Julius Caesar." 

While Abraham Lincoln was yet a child, a fortune- 
teller predicted it would be his mission to free the 
slaves of America. 

This omen often took the form of early phophetic 
activity. 

Hermes, the patron deity of song, when four days old 
put strings across the shell of a tortoise and played sweet- 
est music. Hercules, the same day he was born, stran- 
gled two large serpents which attacked him in his 
cradle. 

The jealousy of the father was excited by an omen 
that accompanied the birth of Cyrus, and he cruelly 
exposed his child to death in the wilderness. A peasant 
rescuing the infant, adopted him as his own son. But 
the play of the child revealed his royal birth and re- 
stored young'Cyrus to his home and to the crown. 

326 



326 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



The most beautiful of all is the legend, that tells us 
the Christ-child and his companions played at making 
doves of clay, and that the Christ-child's dove was ani- 
imated with life and flew. 

The wise observer will still see the omen hanging 
over the nursery, indicating the direction the child's life 
will probably take. That omen will be found in the 
child's play. 

Play is not an idle thing. It is the beginning of 
human activity ; and the full development of human 
activity is play grown to maturity. As the germ of the 
plant can be seen in the tiny seed, so the future man 
can be seen in the early activity of the child. 

At first sight all childish play seems to have a silly 
sameness. Impelled by a restless disposition, the 
uneasy little creatures go from one thing to another in 
endless, random activity. One moment they are pleased 
and entertained with a thing, the next moment they 
weary of it and go for something else. But a close ob- 
server will be convinced these puerilities have sense 
enough in them to reveal the child's mind, and are 
prophetic of what is to follow. The magnetic nee- 
dle totters and oscillates for a time, but eventually set- 
tles with point fixed to the north. The child brings his 
tendency and direction with him into the world ; at first 
a kind of tottering and oscillating impulse, which will 
eventually grow into a personal peculiarity, holding the 
child hard in some one direction. 

At an early age these personal traits of character are 
observed and win a reputation for the little folks ; and 
they are fortunate if they escape having their reputa- 



SELF -EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 327 

tions coined into significant nicknames. When the 
world was young the workers won their names through 
their craft. Such names as Weaver, Smith, Miller and 
Carpenter tell their own story. Weaver wove his out 
of the whole cloth. Miller was ground out. Carpenter 
built his name. Smith's name was forged. This habit 
of nicknaming people after their trades is of ancient 
origin. It dates back to the third generation in the 
history of the race. Cain was christened after his 
uncle of unsavory memory. But for all that the 
child was a natural born musician. To give expression 
to the inborn melody of his soul, he constructed every 
hollow tube and straw into some kind of a musical in- 
strument, and went about whistling and blowing these 
sounding things till the boys nicknamed him " Tubal 
Cain." 

At school, where children are best known, this habit 
of nick-naming prevails to such an extent that almost 
every child wears a sobriquet. One on account of his 
malignant mischief is called "Peck." That squint- 
eyed little blackboard expert, who never delays to do 
his adding on his fingers, is dubbed "Figurs. " An- 
other starved-looking personification of book knowl- 
edge, is known as " Solomon." Then there is young 
" Eloquent," the " Poet," the " Horse.'' The marked 
traits of each, the sagacity, the veracity, the pugnacity, 
the loquacity, the mendacity, are all observed and la- 
belled. 

The early activity, which to a careless observer seems 
so alike, is in reality so unlike, as to make a difierent 
reputation for each one ; a reputation often coined into 



328 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



a name which, like a visible thread of black, or white, 
or gold, will run through the whole life from the cra- 
dle to the grave. And after the child is grown to man- 
hood and found his place in life, we often look back and 
call to mind the nickname received at school, remem- 
ing how well it hit the mark then and now. 

THE PLAY OF THE CHILD GROWS INTO THE WORK OF 

THE MAN. 

Children are more than we have thought self-direct- 
ing and self-creative. 

A little prattler, when asked why he talked too much, 
answered, " Tas I dot sumthin' to say." 

Children talk so much because there is something 
stirring in the mind which must be spoken ; they play 
so much because they are possessed of some thought or 
impulse which must be acted out. A careful observer 
will look back and remember that the proclivities and 
pursuits of after life were foreshadowed in the juvenile 
speeches and sports. 

Jenny Lind was playfully singing her kitten to sleep, 
when the magic power of her voice arrested the atten- 
tion of a passer-by. That sportive song was the means 
of bringing Jenny to the concert halls of the world and 
to the palaces of admiring kings and queens. Her aud- 
ience changed, her motives changed. But whether she 
was singing a childish lullaby to doll or kitten, or pour- 
ing out the inspirations of her soul before spell-bound 
audiences, from first to last it was the inborn expression 
of the melody of her heart. If play is a spontaneous, 
impulsive activity, Jenny Lind's song was as much play 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 329 

in moving and melting the hearts of multitudes as when 
singing to dolls and drowsy kittens. 

Human activity is play grown to maturity ; and men 
and women in their proper sphere of activity never 
cease to play. They play the pursuits of life. 

Men who have missed their calling, labor, sweat and 
wear the yoke, and with servile spirit perform the pre- 
scribed task. Full-orbed men do not work for dollars 
and cents, nor for the higher consideration of duty, 
honor, or patriotism, or philanthrophy. These are 
necessary adjuncts ; but the pleasure of doing is the 
impelling cause. They speak because they have some- 
thing to say. They work because they want to do 
something. They played when they were children, 
and they still play their talents, convictions and desires 
after they have grown to be men. 

Daniel Webster played the lawyer when a child, and 
it was the genius for play that grew into the great at- 
torney and statesman. The father had two sons, Zeke 
and Daniel. As the story runs, a woodchuck invaded 
the garden and helped itself to the vegetables. Zeke 
made a trap, caught the vermin and was making haste 
to kill it when Daniel interfered and plead for its life. 
The controversy grew sharp, and the father, who acted 
as judge, suggested that the boys decide the case in a 
law suit play. The proposition was accepted. 

Zeke, in his argument, dwelt upon the thieving pro- 
pensity of the woodchuck, the injury done to the gar- 
den and the value of the skin as reasons why it should 
die. 



330 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



Daniel plead that the woodchuck was one of God's 
creatures ; that in common with human beings it had 
received the gift of life from the fountain of all life ; 
that it was not a vicious or cruel brute. He said it was 
a helpless creature, not being gifted with ability to sow 
and reap for itself, and that it had a natural right to 
life, liberty and the use of such vegetables as it needed 
for food. 

Of course, after such a plea, the woodchuck was ac- 
quitted and restored to the full enjoyment of its in- 
alienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of gar- 
den vegetables. 

This was Daniel Webster's first case, won when he 
was ten years old. The same free, playful outgush of 
benevolent nature, that sported in the boy when plead- 
ing for the woodchuck's life, inspired his whole future 
career. As the boy finds delight in the exhilarating 
game of bat and ball, so the attorney and statesman, 
Daniel Webster, found delight in the congenial and ex- 
hilarating deliverance of his great orations. He played 
and toyed with the flow and vivacity of language, with 
the feelings, emotions and convictions of his audience. 
Not for the consideration of money, honor, or even 
duty ; he spoke because he had something to say ; be- 
cause his emotions, thoughts and convictions rushed 
into expression. And the benevolent nature, which 
plead for the life of the woodchuck, forced him to 
consecrate his talents to philanthropic and patriotic 
uses. In this case, it was certainly the play of the 
child grown to maturity that made the character and 
eloquence of the man. 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 331 

A trade-mark is often instamped in the texture of the 
goods during the process of manufacture. In the gov- 
ernment paper and envelopes, when held up to the 
light, are seen two beautiful monograms, " P. O. D." 
and " U. S.," meaning made for the use of the Post- 
Office Department of the United States. 

Every human being has an inborn trade-mark stamped 
on his inner life. It is the one unchangeable something 
that makes each unlike the other in talent and inclina- 
tion. It is a peculiarity of the physical, mental and 
moral endowments which determines the mode of life 
and even the eflfect of external circumstances. " It 
makes the meat of one man the poison of another. It 
teaches one man to love what another hates; shows one 
man beauty to which another is blind, and thrills one 
man with melody which another does not hear." 

One man is born a warrior. He is so dominated with 
physical courage and determination, that when neces- 
sity requires, he cheerfully takes to the profession of 
arms. In the absence of war, he will be an iconoclast 
and find some image to break, some creed to demolish, 
or some party to defeat. 

Another is all absorbed in the admiration of the 
beautiful. To him the very name of war is repulsive. 
With brush and canvas he alone can find congenial 
employment. 

All others touch the ground ; only the poet is born 
with wings. Inspired with self-illuminating thought, 
he soars on pinions of lofty imagination and exalted 
sentiment and all the world admires his genius. 

The life of another rushes into pious meditation and 
philanthropic deeds. The assembly of prayer and 



332 CHILD - PLAY, OR 



praise have an irresistible attraction for him. His ideal 
hero is the one who came not to destroy but to save life. 

The head of an inventor, like a bee-hive, is swarming^ 
with conceptions of new contrivances. His pocket is 
filled with applications for patent-rights, and his purse 
has not a cent of money in it. He has taxed his inge- 
nuity to make a perpetual motion that almost went, and 
a flying machine that almost flew. Still he perseveres, 
and eventually he hits on something which lightens 
labor and gives the world cheaper goods. 

One is so absorbed in mercantile pursuits that earth 
seems to him a great exchange market. Some are born 
to talk, some to write, some to deed. Each is born 
with some predetermining talent, some trade-mark which 
will give direction to life and determine the effect of ex- 
ternal circumstances on his pursuits. 

Each will feel strong and be strong to do and dare in his 
own sphere. A Wesley never thought of failure in a 
religious meeting ; a Napoleon never feared danger or 
defeat on the field of battle ; Raphael when taking the 
brush was sure of achieving success in art that would 
command the admiration of the world. A Mendels- 
sohn knew that his song would end in a burst of ap- 
plause ; a Horace in prophetic vision saw a monument 
he was raising for himself, more enduring than brass, 
and which the flight of ages and the biting tooth of 
time could not destroy. 

Each of these was great and successful in the exercise 
of his own natural talent, but an attempt to change 
places would have put each out of his sphere and doomed 
him to defeat and oblivion. 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 333 



SOME INBORN, SELF-DIRECTING CRAFT INCLINES 
EACH TO HIS OWN SPHERE. 

The Greeks combined and coined the observed facts of 
adaptation into the idea of destiny and wove them into 
the beautiful story of the three sister fates. Their names 
were " Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos." These three, 
according to Greek mythology, were present at the birth 
of every child, and, by controlling the beginning, con- 
trolled the progress and end of every human career. 

Clotho was there with spindle and flax, out of which 
the thread of life was spun. Lachesis was there, twirled 
the spindle and drew out the thread of its predetermined 
length. Atropos was there with shears in hand and cut 
the thread when life had reached its prescribed limit. 

Not fate, but each one is the author of his own for- 
tune, with a prefixed " hitherto and no farther." Every 
human being comes into life with an innate, self-direct- 
ing taste and talent which operates with all the fixed- 
ness of fate to make success possible in one direction 
and impossible in another. 

The same natural endowment, which fits man for 
work and makes him happy in his own sphere, will un- 
fit him and doom him to misery if he has missed his 
calling. A gifted author was born to wealth. Beauti- 
ful ideals floated through his mind like buds of spring 
only waiting for an opportunity to blossom out into 
essay and poetry. By some adverse turn in the wheel 
of fortune he lost his wealth and was compelled to con- 
vert his pen into a money-making instrument. He 
made the changes, played upon the stock of broom- 
corn a parable to tell the story of his own unhappy, 



334 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



subjugated life. Permitted to choose his own style of 
composition, he would have lived free as the broom- 
corn growing in the field, branching in the air and 
handled by the wind to sweep to Heaven. Then his 
pen would have sported and played with exalted themes 
congenial to his taste. But being forced to the neces- 
sity of writing such matter as could most readily be ex- 
changed in the market for bread, he compared his life 
to the broom-corn bound into the broom and handled 
by the servant to sweep the earth. 

If the one who had only been cramped and warped 
in his profession by unfriendly environments feels his 
bondage so keenly, what must be the bitter yoke of 
servitude worn by the man, who during his whole 
earthly career, has been compelled to sweat and toil to 
do the misfitting work of another, and to leave his own 
work undone. 

"Twice blessed," says Carlisle, "is he who has found 
his own work." Twice wretched is the man who fails 
to find his work. Missing his calling he has missed 
the best of life. His task is incongenial. He is awk- 
ward, criticised, unsuccessful and unwanted. He loses 
heart and enterprise. He grows indifferent, malicious 
and cruel, because the world has been cruel to him. 
And worse than this, if morality is weak, he will be 
sorely tempted to crime. Thousands, who might have 
shone as stars of the first magnitude in their right 
sphere, have fallen into obscurity or even worse, all be- 
cause they failed to find their proper field of activity. 
Contrast the easy and certain success of the man in the 
work for which nature and culture intended him with 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 335 

the wretched and servile condition of the man who has 
missed his calling, and you will appreciate the need of 
some unerring guide to take little children by the hand 
and lead them in the way in which nature predeter- 
mined they should go. 

Is there any such unerring guide? Yes. Taste 
and talent are self-directing. The child's own affinities 
and antipathies with favorable circumstances will guide 
him to the craft inborn in his own soul. What he can 
do best, is the thing which he most desires to do. The 
difficulty is not usually to get the child into the 
place appointed by nature, but to keep him out of it. 
One calling is more honorable or more lucrative than 
another. Influenced by these considerations the dicta- 
tions of nature are disregarded. 

A father's choice was that his son should be a mer- 
chant, and with this object in view apprenticed him to 
a grocery-man. The boy soon won a reputation for 
honesty and integrity, but with all was an unaccept- 
able clerk. The grocery business was to him a drudg- 
ery. He was absent-minded and his lack of interest in 
his work often resulted in ludicrous blunders. On one 
occasion an order for a pound of ground coffee was 
filled with a pound of ground pepper ; a mistake if not 
discovered earlier it was certainly discovered when the 
purchaser was sipping his hot breakfast beverage. 

At another time he was sent to the cellar to fill a cus- 
tomer's jug with molasses. The syrup was set running. 
But no boy could remain idle while so large a jug was 
being filled. Observing the chalk, with which tally 
was kept, it suggested employment more to the boy's 



336 CHILD -PLAY, OB 



taste than handling groceries. And at once he began 
to draw a portrait on the barrel. The flowing molasses 
was forgotten and the the overflowing jug continued to 
overflow. The drawing was growing into evidence of 
artistic genius when the impatient grocery-man ap- 
peared on the spot. At a glance, he saw the cellar 
floor deluged with his choicest golden syrup and the 
well-nigh empty barrel decorated with a charming por- 
trait. His indignation was curiously mingled with ad- 
miration for the beautiful picture. And the matter was 
finally amicably settled by providing the lad with 
money to go to an art school, where inclination and 
talent would work together. 

Often failure in the parents' choice of profession has, 
by a circuitous route, brought the child back to his own 
choice. Mozart when a child was passionately fond of 
music. He wanted to sing and do nothing but sing. 
The father, ambitious that the son should rise higher in 
the social scale than he had done, determined to educate 
his child for the law, hoping that through the law he 
would find political promotion. But nature decided for 
music, and indeed so strongly that the father thought 
it necessary to put his interdict upon the study of that 
art. Too much study of music was in his estimation a 
waste of valuable time. But young Mozart's heart was 
wedded to instrument and song. He sung and played with 
mufiled harpsichord, and the law books were neglected. 
When parental advice proved unavailing, the irate 
father resorted to severer measures. He cut the strings 
and finally broke the boy's harpsichord, and almost 
broke his heart. But nature would have her way, and 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 337 

Leopold Mozart repaired his harpsichord, renewed the 
strings and played and sung again. The law degree 
was finally taken, but the clients never came. Young 
Mozart's failure as a lawyer forced him to music as a 
bread-winner. His natural genius for music now won 
for him the promotion and fame his father hoped to 
force upon him through the practice of the law. At the 
age of twenty-four he was appointed chamber musician. 
In quick succession he was advanced to the position of 
court composer, leader of the orchestra and vice-chap- 
lain master, and immortalized his name by giving the 
world one of the grandest volumes of sacred music. 

There is nothing insignificant in the play, words, 
pranks and songs of children. They first play then 
work the pursuits of life. Observe and help them to 
develop their own budding talents. Surround them 
with such conditions as are calculated to stimulate to 
activity and to call out their affinities. Then give 
them liberty — all the liberty consistent with their own 
well-being and the rights of others If we dictate 
we envelop instead of develop the mind, and weaken 
the power of choice. Whatever their peculiar pref- 
erences may be there will be found some worthy and 
honorable place bidding for their services. Being one's 
self is sometimes called eccentric and " cranky." But 
there are places to be filled by the eccentric and cranks 
that can be filled by no other. The wound in the side 
of the oyster grows into the pearl, and eccentricity cul- 
tivated and utilized now ofiers the shortest road to dis- 
tinction. The market is glutted with apes and imita- 
tors. It is the one careful to be himself who is wanted. 



338 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



MAKE THE PLAY OF THE CHILD THE PROFESSION OF 

THE MAN. 

The social body is not one but many members. The 
diversity of pursuit is one of the wonders of our com- 
plex civilization. In any large community it would be 
easy to get a hundred persons together engaged in a 
hundred dififerent callings. Each of those callings 
branch into innumerable specialties. These specialties 
are open doors appealing to peculiarity of taste and 
talent. But even if no door should open, let the worker 
open one for himself and make his own way. The 
world has always had need of reformers to go before 
and break up the old paths worn into deep ruts ; to in- 
spire his fellow-men with new ideas and show them new 
and better ways, and to carry truth and justice beyond 
the boundaries at which they found them. 

In the midst of such bewildering accumulation of 
pursuit, it may seem difficult for the child to go direct 
to his most befitting place. But it requires all those 
crafts to complete our social organization ; and it is a 
pleasing thought that each, like the " poet," was born 
to his place and guided to it by taste and talent. It is 
true that a few are so rich in natural endowment and 
versatility of talent that they could successfully fill any 
calling. But the majority are born one-sided and nar- 
row in their range of capacity. Their natural endow- 
ment fit them for some one thing in preference to all 
others. 

This personal peculiarity often takes the form of 
quickness of perception, or special memory for some 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 339 

special branch of learning, with a corresponding lack 
of interest and dullness in other things. 

This bent of talent is indicated by what is called par- 
tial memory. The child is a prodigy in one thing and 
a dunce in every thing else. Jacques Irandi, a prodigy 
in mathematical calculations, had a special memory for 
figures. At the age of six or seven without schooling 
of any kind or even knowing his letters, he took to 
mathematical calculation as a childish play or pastime. 
He could solve the most extended and complicated 
problems mentally. His talent all ran to figures. He 
had no genius for any other branch of science or litera- 
ture. 

Mendelssohn when a child could reproduce the long- 
est and most difficult pieces of music from one or two 
hearings. 

Horace Varret was a born artist. He could carry the 
exact copy of paintings or statuary in mind for weeks 
or even months after seeing them, and then produce 
the exact resemblance of them from memory. Others 
have a prodigious literary memory and by a single read- 
ing enstamp a poem or manuscript indelibly on the tab- 
lets of their minds. Others have a genius for remem- 
bering names, places or dates. This one-sided develop- 
ment is the rule, though in a less marked degree, while 
the rounded, symmetrical ability is the exception. 
It is nature's method to fit different persons for their 
peculiar work in life. And it is surprising at what an 
early age the child will know his own and will find 
his work. He likes to do what he can do best. This 
special talent reveals itself in the child being more ar- 



340 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



dent in one direction than another. He is inclined to 
do some one thing in preference to others. He will 
have more faith in his ability to do his own chosen 
work. In his favorite field he will be self-conceited 
and daring. 

The prevailing play of the child will be his domi- 
nant faculty going into spontaneous operation. Euclid 
and Paschal when children played at drawing geomet- 
rical diagrams and solving mathematical problems. 
Napoleon played at war, drilling and commanding his 
schoolmates. Making sermons and preaching were the 
juvenile amusements of Chalmers and Robert Hall. 
Robert Fulton played at mechanical contrivances. At 
the age of thirteen he constructed a fishing-boat im- 
pelled by wheels. All that remained for the man to do, 
was to apply the power of steam to the invention of 
the boy, and the steam-boat, one of the world's great- 
est achievements, was a reality. 

Humphrey Davy when a boy played at collecting 
minerals and arranging cabinets. Isaac Watts when a 
child talked in rhyme. His father thought it stupid 
and flogged him for it. In the midst of the punish- 
ment young Watts cried out : 

" Oh, father, do some pity take 
And I will no more verses make !" 

The child born to authorship will have a lively imag- 
ination. During his earlier years, being unable to dis- 
tinguish between fact and fancy, he will be given to ex- 
aggeration. Having seen two rabits he will report the 
case as having seen twenty ; and four crows will be suf- 
ficient to make a story of a hundred. He will get the 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 341 

right story into the wrong place, or on the wrong per- 
son or thing. His glowing imagination will with some 
be mistaken for the propensity to lie and misrepresent. 
But as the faculty of correct observation and discrimi- 
nation becomes more developed his apparent weakness 
will correct itself and become the crowning jewel of his 
life. 

There is a place for every one. But what will become 
of that little embodiment of self-will and passion. His 
bosom heaves with impetuosity. His temper is sur- 
charged with a fearful amount of electricity and fiery 
sparks strike out with furious force and direction. He 
is stubborn and determined in his own way. In fact, 
he is altogether unmanageable and incorrigible. It 
seems that nature has overshot the mark, and in her 
excess and exaggeration instead of producing a hero 
has produced a monster of total depravity. 

But it is not wise to criticise unfinished work. Ap- 
parent evil is often unripe good. This world is no 
friend to ninnies or negatives. We must fight if we 
would reign. In bestowing her gifts nature always an- 
ticipates the opposing forces her creatures must encoun- 
ter. Plant life has many enemies ; and nature in her 
fecundity throws out a hundred blossoms or seeds for 
every fruit which grows to maturity. If many do per- 
ish many will struggle through and survive. 

This unconquerable will and fiery temper may seem 
excessive in the child, but he is " wrong-headed where 
rightest." The world has often needed men and women 
with just such natural endowments, and will need them 
again. It was the impulsive, ardent and unyielding dis- 



342 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



position that made Paul the hero of Christian missions. 
This invincible determination was the crowning jewel 
in the character of Julius Caesar, which enabled him to 
conquer the wild tribes of Europe and Britain and to 
unify them under Roman civilization. It made Luther 
the successful leader of the Reformation. It made 
Washington the "Father of his country." It made 
Grant the commander-in-chief of the armies of the civil 
war. 

The inborn disposition, however rude and riotous in 
the child, cannot be subjugated. It must have vent. 
Xet it be trained and directed, but not repressed. 

Solomon was an observer of nature. He had seen the 
hyssop by elective affinity planting itself in some shaded 
nook on the wall, and the cedar thriving best on the 
mountain side. He was also a student of child nature. 
He observed that each child was born with inclination 
and peculiarities all its own, or as Emerson put it, " To 
every human soul nature added a little violence of direc- 
tion in its own path ; a shove in its own way." 

Observing this, Solomon coined it into that oft-quoted 
but as oft misunderstood proverb, "Train a child ac- 
cording to his way and when he is old he will not depart 
from it." No passage of Scripture has been more mis- 
understood and misapplied than this. It does not mean 
subjugate the child to the path of rectitude. But it means 
train each child according to his own way, his own pecul- 
iarties or his own individuality. Make it a point to dis- 
cover and develop the child's special talent, and help 
him to find the place and work for which God and nature 



SELF -EDUCATION THBOUGH PliAY. 343 

specially intended him. This found when young will 
continue to be his choice and delight when he is old. 

There are some children who seem to be born prema- 
ture little misers. First in their heart's desire, first in 
their words learned and spoken and first in their efforts 
to acquire are small coins. No toy to them is half so 
attractive as the toy-bank. They naturally take to 
trading knives, marbles and playthings, and manage to 
bankrupt all their play-fellows. Sometimes they will 
go so far as to sell their school dinner for pennies and 
pence. It is not money, but improper use of it and mis- 
guided business methods, which is the root of all evil. 
In one home the love of money is a " sacra fames auri^'*'' 
a cursed love of gold. In another it is a tree of life 
fragrant with sweetest bloom, and its branches bend 
with most nutritious food. Ours is a monied civiliza- 
tion. No calling is more useful and more honorable 
than money getting. If the child is born with greed 
for gain give him a toy-bank, encourage him to fill it ; 
but do not fail at an early day to impress his mind with 
correct ideas of ownership, rights of property, a sense 
of justice, the duty of equitable exchange and the beauty 
of philanthrophy. Then open the way for business and 
his eagerness for gain will lead him to happiness and 
honor. The world has ever had great need of wealthy 
philanthropists. 

Whatever the peculiarities of the normal child, believe 
his likes and dislikes are prophetic and divine. Read 
and obey the command of God and nature in that activ- 
ity called play. Open the door and prepare the way 
for the prevailing play of the child to grow into the 
work of the man. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



Effect of Play on After Life. 

" All that the past has tried to do is stored up as a result, as a 
creative product in the bosom of living men and women,— M. J, 
Savage. 

"Come, dear old comrade, you and T 
Will steal an hour from days gone by, 
The shining days when life was new, 
And all was bright with morning dew — 
The lusty days of long ago. 
When you were Bill and I was Joe. 

You have worn the judge's ermined robe, 

You've taught your name to half the globe; 

You've sung mankind a deathless strain ; 

You've made the dead poet live again. 

The world may call you what it will— 

But you and I are Joe and Bill."— O. W. Holmes. 

fR. HOLLAND in " Bonnicastle " tells of a relig- 
ious society that first worshiped in a homely little 
chapel. Their prayers were heard, they grew in num- 
bers, in grace and in the possession of goods of this 
world, and prosperity enabled them to build a large and 
beautiful church. 

But the many precious blessings received in that 
humble sanctuary and its sweet and hallowed associa- 
tion made it so dear to them, that they could not think 
of breaking down those sacred walls or abandoning a 
place so holy ; hence a new and imposing house of wor- 
ship was built over it and the primitive little chapel 
was used as the ''Holy of Holies" for their most sacred 
services. 

23 345 



346 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



Manhood is not built on the ruins of childhood. 
The playful sport and innocent enjoyment of the earlier 
days are not forgotten; the childish romp and riot is 
stored up in the child lite as a creative product; the 
temple of matured life encompasses all that was 
thought and said and done in child life. 

This brief morning of life is worthy of care and cul- 
ture for its own sake. Only one childhood, and it is 
worth while to do all that can be done to make that 
childhood bright and happy. 

But more than this. The tuture is in the present. 
The man is in the child. The memory of childhood 
will run as a dark thread or bright thread through all 
the future career. A bright day in child life will do 
something toward giving sunlight to all subsequent 
days ; a dark day in childhood may cast a shadow over 
the whole journey of life. 

It is memory which preserves this unbroken continu- 
ity. Memory is the connecting link in the chain of 
identity both in individual and national life. In the in- 
dividual it binds together yesterday and to-day, last 
year and this year, infancy and old age. 

In the life of the human race memory binds together 
the earliest century and the latest century. It stores 
up the result of the past as the foundation of the fu- 
ture, it carries forward the earliest achievements as the 
basis of later and grander achievements. 

Without the faculty of memory the ancient world 
would have been buried in blank oblivion. For cen- 
turies and for millenniums there was no printed his- 
toric page. Before the invention of writing, memory 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 347 

alone preserved the records of the past. Many old 
books now written on parchment or bound in volumes 
were first written on the tablets of memory, and in the 
form of tradition were handed down from generation to 
generation with the greatest accuracy and precision. 

The oldest books in the world are the sacred books of 
India. Among these are the Vedas, composed of more 
than a thousand hymns and more than ten thousand 
verses. Their guardians believed these first-born 
thoughts and words of mankind too sacred to commit 
to writing. They must be preserved alone in that 
divinely inspired book written by the finger of God — 
the human memory. The Brahmins say, these oldest 
books in the world have been handed down in this form 
from the remotest antiquity without the loss of a sen- 
tence or even the variation of an accent. 

A Christian Bishop, who lived in the time when books 
were few and costly, asserted : " That in a flock of four 
thousand there was not one who had not every word 
both in the Old Testament and in the New perfectly in 
the memory." 

What we consider prodigious memories are as com- 
mon to-day as ever they were. Only, in this practical 
age of ours, the mind is stored with a practical knowl- 
edge of things. It is the world and the fullness there- 
of that is now treasured in the countless chambers of 
the brain. It is the facts of science, the annals of his- 
tory the observations of daily life, all written on the 
tablets of memory, giving perpetuity and unity to the 
life of the individual and educating the race with the 
accumulating wisdom of all ages. 



348 CHILD -PLAY, OB 



Amazing memory ! Ask the wisest what it is ; they 
answer, " We cannot tell you." As a faculty of the soul 
we all know its advantage. Our eyes might he blinded, 
our ears deaf and we still could have a conscious pos- 
session of life, of property, of acquaintances and friend- 
ship associations. But without memory all these would 
vanish. Father, mother, lover, child, joy, sorrow, loss, 
gain would be as if they had never been. Even the 
future is the counterpart of the past ; and without the 
memory of the past there could be no anticipation of 
the future. All of life would be what little is exper. 
ienced in the present moment, a single, isolated momen- 
tary consciousness. 

Memory is the recording angel of the individual life. 
It writes the observations and experiences in the ever- 
growing column of days, weeks, months and years, and 
is ever adding them up and reporting the sum total of 
the whole. Mental impressions may be perishable, but 
the range of recollection is wider than we think, and 
apparent oblivion, under some conditions, is not proof 
against possible recovery under other conditions. 

It is certain that early impressions are the most last- 
ing. 

Life is a journey. The old patriarch said, " We are 
pilgrims and strangers." The young traveler begins the 
journey through an enchanted land. The sun is bright. 
Nature is decorated with bloom and beauty. The earth 
is carpeted with green, the air is fragrant with its sweet- 
est perfume, the birds sing, the heart is pure and every- 
thing is^fuU of interest. But journeying through this 
world' he is becoming a stranger in the world. Where 



SEIiF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY, 349 

he was once greeted with familiar faces and cheering 
words, he now meets strangers who have no greeting for 
him. 

But the memory of childhood still clings on through 
the whole journey of life. When weary with care and 
labor, oppressed with responsibility, or made lonely by 
bereavement, the heart turns backward and lives over 
again those long gone days when life was fresh, flowing 
free and full of hope. An old man mused thus : "When 
I am worn and weary, I go back to boyhood and live it 
over again. I am lying under an apple tree when the 
blossoms are out in the spring ; the tree is trembling with 
the music of insect and bird. I see the blue sky above 
me and the clouds like ships sailing out of the unknown 
and bearing messages from some far-oflf magic land. 
And I am restored and made strong because of these 
blessed sweet pictures of olden time." 

Aged people remember the veriest trifles which grow 
more and more treasured as the accumulating years slip 
by, adding each its luster to the halo of interest which 
crowns the recollection of happy childhood. It matters 
not how prosperous, how cultured, how notable or how 
advanced in life, to those first obscure years the thoughts 
turn as to a fair picture. 

The first to be interested in and the last to be forgot- 
ten were the toys we played with when we were chil- 
dren. It would be just as easy to forget the name of 
father or mother as to forget the playthings they gave 
us. No grandfather or grandmother ever gets too old 
to tell their grandchildren the story of the new toy, or 
the story of the broken toy, or of the toy that was long 



350 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



lost and found again. Just mention the subject to old 
people, and what sweet memories it sets going. It 
brings back not only to the mind but to the ears as well 
the melody of the new harp, and the grateful, honest 
promise to be a good child and never cry again. Asso- 
ciated with the harp is the memory of the new toy table, 
the toy dishes and the toy iron used in ironing dolly's 
dresses. 

It was these early influences that awakened the child's 
mind and memorj' into activity. They gave direction 
to child-life, and they live and linger in the child's afifec- 
tions as an ever-increasing influence. 

Gracious and kind the Providence which awakens 
memory as the first-born faculty of the mind, or at least 
awakens it into activity, contemporary with the dim- 
est dawn of intelligence. 

The sensations of infantile sight, hearing, tasting and 
touching are all transformed into perceptions and infan- 
tile memory which receives and treasures and adds them 
to the daily observations of unfolding life. In house- 
building the work advances by placing layer upon layer 
of brick, round upon round and story upon story until 
the whole is completed in symmetrical design and unity. 

In life and character building memory is the archi- 
tect, making each thought, word and work the founda- 
tion of all that follows. Childhood's memories, coming 
back in the form of after images, have much to do in 
awakening and developing the faculty of imagination, 
and the romance of childhood becomes the foundation 
of the romance of later life. 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 351 

Imagination is the power of calling back absent 
things to sight and sense, so that they may be seen, heard 
and felt as if present again. These after images are 
not renewed in the exact size, form and color of the 
original. Affected by fancy they return idealized, trans- 
figured, glorified. Their colors are brighter, their forms 
more beautiful, their surroundings more delightful and 
more enchanting. 

This faculty of imagination or power of visualizing 
is more active with children than with adults. The 
child has an appetite for the wonderful. The world is 
to him a fairy world, full of prodigies. Trees, fields, 
brooks, birds and people are all seen in perfection and 
beauty fit for paradise. The first sun-rise is a miracle, 
after that it is natural phenomena. To the child born 
at midnight, yesterday never was, and the new world 
to him is a world full of miracles. A stroll through the 
fields and forests is a journey through an enchanted 
land. Everything is full of interest and clothed with a 
halo of beauty. The amazed onlooker would linger 
and look and yet he has hurried forward by the attrac- 
tion of other novelties. He must stay and yet he must 
go, and the new discovery is carried away with him. 
His pockets are stuffed with such wonders as pebbles, 
bulbs and insects. His bonnet is decorated with rare 
plants and flowers. His arms are filled and his garments 
puffed out on every side with trophies of his ramble. 
These collections are carried home and cast away to 
make room for other collections equally marvelous. 

But the fancies awakened are treasured and carried 
through life a perpetual memory. The golden age of 



352 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



childhood takes fast hold upon the mind, and is lived 
over and over again ever growing more idealized. Its 
sorrows and disappointments are forgotten. Its inno- 
cent pleasures magnified and multiplied. And as the 
thoughts move onward in earnest, glad expectation of 
the future, this golden age of the past in some mysteri- 
ous way slips ahead of us and becomes one of the 
beautiful possibilities to be attained in the future. 
The happy childhood left far behind re-appears as the 
happy manhood we hope to experience not far ahead. 

It is, with the eyes of childhood more than the eyes 
of the scientist, that in prophetic vision we behold the 
new heaven and the new earth wherein dwelleth right- 
eousness, that we look not on the things that are seen 
but on the eternal realities that are not seen. 

The training of the laboratory and dissecting room 
dims our eyes and dulls our fancy to all this. There 
we study forces, molecules and laws. The world, that 
was once infinite, incomprehensible and peopled with 
fairies, is now diagrammed on map or globe and has 
actually been circumnavigated in seventy-two days and 
three hours. The sun and stars are counted. Their 
weight is weighed and their distance measured. The 
awe-inspiring thunder and the blinding flash seen in 
the clouds has been resolved into electricity and yoked 
into the collar and traces of the horse to propel the 
street car and subjugated to cook our dinner. 

From this analysis of mysterious nature, we return 
to visit the home and scenes of our childhood, and oh, 
how changed that dear, romantic spot. The once tow- 
ering hills have shrunk into a monotonous swell, and 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 353 



the brook that flowed so deep and clear between has 
disappeared from view and now flows in clay-burnt tile 
buried beneath the ground. The trees that once tow- 
ered so loftily on the banks of that brook have been 
dwarfed into scrubby things, having neither beauty nor 
poetry. The field that was once three miles wide is 
found on exact measurement to be fifty-two rods wide 
and sixty-six rods long, containing just twenty-one 
acres and fifty-seven rods. And Mr. Scott's house — the 
only marvel is, that it was ever thought either large or 
fine; and Jennie Scott's paintings, once admired as 
wonders of art, are said to be faded, and since her 
mother's death taken down from the wall. Only the 
people, so rich and learned and grand, that once dwelt 
there, where are they ? They have gone to the home 
over there, where the ideal has become the real. 

What a prosy world this would have been had it first 
been seen by the critical eye of manhood, or the scien- 
tist. Its poetry first and last is seen through the big 
curious eyes of childhood. 

Tennyson spoke his first line of poetry when he was 
a child six years old. An appalling thunder storm was 
approaching. The boy pointing to it said, "I hear a 
voice in the wind." The world never became disen- 
chanted to Tennyson. That voice of Nature in her dif- 
ferent moods and phases never ceased to speak to him, 
and the poet never ceased to commune with those 
voices. Not only the storm spoke to him, but the sun- 
shine, the stars, the fields, the flowers, the birds. They 
all had voices and songs and the poet had ears to hear 
them and a pen to write them. 



354 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



The observations and amusements of childhood are 
indelibly stamped on memory. For a time they may 
be forgotten, not lost, but laid out of sight in safe keep- 
ing for future use ; and with proper conditions they will 
return and be lived over and over again, not only as a 
sweet memory, but serving a valuable purpose in the 
economy of life. The one who had forgotten his own 
childhood could never take little children up in his 
arms and bless them. " If the boy is getting away out 
of your life you had better go after him and bring him 
back." 

If he is getting away, nature provides in some unex- 
pected way and moment to bring him back. 

The Prince of Wales in the prime of young manhood 
went with his Queen mother to spend a few weeks in 
their summer house in Scotland. When the young 
prince entered the parlor, a dim shadowy image of a 
forgotten something came floating through his mind. 
Its vagueness and indefiniteness was painfully bewilder- 
ing to him. His mother observed his agitation, and 
guessing the cause, directed her son's attention to the 
fact that the figure on the wall-paper was the same as 
that of his nursery room when a child. At this sug- 
gestion, his confused thoughts took definite shape, and 
the long-forgotten childhood came back again with all 
the vividness of the events of yesterday. The nursery, 
the furniture, the play-ground, his playmates, his toys, 
the games, the sport, the laughter of childhood were all 
reproduced, and in a moment lived over again — repro- 
duced to be ever after called back at will. 



SKLF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 355 

This remembrance of being a child among children 
will help the future King of England to be a man among 
men. 

The boy at the close of a day's innocent mirth, kneel- 
ing before God at his mother's knee, saying, " Our 
Father which art in heaven," coming back in memory, 
late in life often brings the prodigal man back to a 
throne of grace. 

In the steeple of a convent chapel in Italy once hung 
a peal of bells famed far and wide for their melody. 
The childhood home of a lad passionately fond of music 
was near the convent. Each day this chime of bells 
mingled its melody with the romp and play of the boy 
and lingered with him as the sweetest memory of all. 

By some political convulsion the bells were carried 
away to foreign lands, and were finally placed in the 
cathedral of Limerick, Ireland. An interval of many 
long years had passed. The sea between Italy and Ire- 
land was wide and deep, but wider and deeper the gulf 
that separated the old profane, dissipated man from the 
purity and innocent joys of childhood. Over many 
lands and seas and into many sins this old voyager had 
gone. One calm and beautiful evening the vessel which 
bore him was floating in the deep and broad waters of the 
Shannon, when the bells suddenly pealed forth from the 
cathedral tower. The chimes listened to so often in ear- 
lier days brought back all the long lost memories of 
childhood, native land, mother, home, childhood's 
sports and joys and childhood prayers ; all early recol- 
lections were rung back to mind by their familiar sound. 
Such a tide of memory swept over the chords of his 



356 CHILD -PLAY, OR 



heart that the thread of life was snapped under its 
happy vibrations, and repeating the prayer learned at 
his mother's knees, "Now I lay me down to sleep. I 
pray the Lord my soul to keep," his eyes closed on this 
world forever. The nearer we keep our hearts to child- 
hood the better men and women we will be, the better 
neighbors, the better parents and the better teachers. 

The play of the child will become the deeds, duty, 
character, 

AND PROFESSION OF THE MAN. 

There are perhaps a few great natures which unfold 
by the force of that which is within them. They ab- 
sorb and assimilate circumstances and influences into 
their own nature and their own kind, and only to a lim- 
ited degree are molded or influenced by circumstances. 
They only need normal unfolding, and circumstances 
help them to unfold ; and yet none are so strong as to 
be absolutely independent of formative influences. 

But the common, weaker child nature is shaped by 
circumstances, and the organs grow by exercise and 
grow in the direction in which they are exercised. 
These little, busy idlers are spinning their own fate, 
never to be undone. Every smallest act of sport, of 
love, or of evil passions, every thought and imitative 
act leaves never so little impression on the life. Down 
among the nerve cells and fibers, the molecules are reg- 
istering and storing up those impressions to be used in 
after life for or against the little thoughtless actor. 
Brain paths are formed in childhood, and every addi- 
tional thought goes skipping down those beaten brain 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 357 

paths. The child goes out into life a walking bundle 
of habits ; habits formed in the secret chambers of the 
brain, like seeds germinating under ground, and long 
before any good seed was thought to be sown, long be- 
fore we are conscious of any formative process going 
on, these brain habits are growing with his growth and 
giving tendency and direction to life. Later these rudi- 
mentary brain habits unfold into what we call individu- 
ality, character and pursuit. 

The child of pious and intelligent parents was 
brought up in a very religious and puritanical atmos- 
phere. Prayer meetings and Sunday school were the 
only amusements in which the child was permitted to 
indulge. The great occasion of his early life was to 
occasionally hear some starring evangelist sing or pray. 
The natural imitative activity of the child was all en- 
grossed in playing Sunday school and prayer meeting. 
The outhouses and barns were often made vocal with 
an assembly of the children of the community playing 
religious services of some kind. Such juvenile reading 
as, "The Marrow of Modern Divinity," *' Boston's Four- 
Fold Estate," " Hervey's Meditations Among the 
Tombs," "Young's Night Thoughts," and the "Shorter 
Catechism" for light reading, was forced on the child. 

These books in depths and morals, far beyond his 
age, however, left their touch on mind and heart, and 
enough was retained to give bent and purpose to life. 
This undigested theology fermenting in the mind of 
the child distilled itself through his thoughts and must 
find expression in some manner. The church and the 
pulpit at once afforded the opportunity and the field. 



358 CHILD -PLAY, OB 



The result was a full-fledged preacher who at a tender 
age gave himself to the work of the ministry with great 
acceptance and success. 

Distinguished for a self-reliant mind and ready lan- 
guage this preacher was thought, both by himself and 
others, to be a man of extraordinary originality. Noth- 
ing is lost. Abel being dead yet speaketh. Something 
of his speach mingles with the voice of every speaker 
since his time. Our new words are old words ; old in 
their material though constantly renewed in form. Our ' 
new thoughts and new theology are old thoughts and 
old theology renewed, revived and lived over again. 
New ideas, new discoveries, new inventions are only a 
modified application of old principles and impressions 
wrought out and made ready to hand by some predeces- 
sor. Originality is only a metamorphosis of thought — 
thought that died in one generation and returns to life 
in another. All that occurs in the presence of the 
child leaves its impression on his soul, and its effects 
are wrought out in his calling and character. 

This young prodigy of originality and eloquence, at 
a later date re-reading the course of his childhood the- 
ology, discovered that his supposed originality was only 
drawing in a modified form from his mind what had 
been deposited there before he was conscious of intelli- 
gent receptivity. The childhood impression had beyond 
doubt determined the profession of manhood. The 
character of the man, the texture of his theology, his 
morals, the sermons he wrote and preached, the com- 
pany he kept, and all that constituted his social and pro- 
fessional career, was the result of the turn given to his 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 359 

mind when he was a child. God called him into the 
ministry by providentially filling his juvenile memory 
with something to say and do when be became a man. 

The seed which grows into professional choice and 
career is generally planted early in life and germinates 
secretly and unobserved, and the first tender blades of 
that unfolding plant will appear in the form of child's 
play. Every idea impressed on the mind of the child ; 
yes, every idea is voiced in play. 

Grown-up people have many ways of giving utter- 
ance to mental impressions. A new idea gets hold of 
one man and sets him to reading. Page after page is 
perused in search of new light or new language to voice 
the thought this new idea set brewing in his mind. The 
same circumstances sets another man to writing. He 
uses the pen to unburden his soul. 

Another grown-up person would, under the same cir- 
cumstances, give vent to his feelings in prayer, praise 
or profane language. He might shout, dance, cry or do 
some odd and surprising thing, or he might sit down 
and do nothing at all. But the child would play it. 
Play is the universal, natural language of childhood. 

If an idea takes hold on the puerile mind, the little 
actor sets himself to translate it into play. Not his de- 
votion to books, but his propensity to play school reveals 
impressions made in the school room. If an idea of the 
farm has found its way into the mind of the child he 
will play farmer ; if an idea of the store, he will play 
merchant; if a religious impression has been made 
on his mind, he will play prayer-meeting or preacher. 
If the boys play horse race, each impersonating his own 



360 CHILD - PLAY, OR 



favorite steed, and using dock leaves for ten dollar bills 
bets on himself, it is unmistakable evidence that they 
have caught some intelligent conception of an agricul- 
tural fair, and perhaps will one day be managers of such 
an enterprise. These boys reveal the fact that the seeds 
of possible professional life have already been planted 
and germinated, and their puerile sports are the 
tender leaves. Other seeds have been doubtless sown 
along side of those. And, with proper care and culture, 
it is not too late to make any one of these grow and bear 
fruit to the exclusion of others. 

If the child ceases to play those pursuits it does not 
indicate that the impressions are lost ; they are laid aside 
for future use and will awaken into activity again. 

The child of a teacher of Latin and Greek often crept 
unobserved into the recitation room. The little, un- 
easy thing had to be tolerated some place ; but neither 
teacher nor student ever dreamed of counting him one 
of the class. And yet this little four-year old caugh* 
the idea and began to play high school. Whether he 
was playing the role of teacher or pupil was not clear 
to the observer. In his play he improvised imitation 
Latin and Greek and sometimes staggered on to baby 
Latin, which sounded much like the declension of nouns 
and the conjugation of verbs, so often recited in his 
presence. This effort at classical play certainly had an 
abiding effect on the career of the man, and gave direc- 
tion to his taste. 

At an early age he entered college, and with unusual 
ease and rapidity, he mastered the languages he played 
when a child and graduated in classical attainment at 
the head of his class. 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 361 

In some cases nervous diseases, giving morbid activ- 
ity to the mind, have a marvelous power in restoring 
and bringing into active operation early impressions 
made on the mind of the child. 

A nurse girl, who had heard the Hebrew Bible read 
in the original without any apparent interest in the 
reading, later in life under the effect of nervous dis- 
ease, she quoted the Hebrew scripture fluently and cor- 
rectly. The seed planted produces the twig that is 
bent, and it is the character of the seed rather than the 
bending of the twig which determines the character of 
the fruit. 

A young lady of ordinary talent and common school 
education, in childhood had access to a family library 
composed of a few well-chosen religious books. Under 
the influence of disease her mind and imagination be- 
came wonderfully active and her language marvelously 
fluent and eloquent. Her thoughts and words of Christ 
and his salvation, of the heavenly life and its imperish- 
able enjoyments, the depths and simplicity of the 
thought, the beauty of imagery, the sublimity of de- 
scription and the fervor of her seraphic orations brought 
hundreds to her bedside. 

Where did this uneducated girl learn all this? The 
opinion began to prevail that she was divinely inspired. 
But at length on critical investigation, it was discov- 
ered that the basis of all this exalted sentiment was to 
be found in books which she had read and discourses 
she had listened to when a child. Her case was only 
that of an intensified mind, taste and memory. An- 
other illustration of the fact that childhood impressions 



362 CHILD - PLAY, OR 



never cease to live and linger in the mind and may be 
quickened into active operation at any time. 

Professor Jules Janet of Paris, who made a critical 
study of insanity, tells us insanity is often " the result 
of all sorts of memories absent in the ordinary condi- 
tion, but coming back in nervous diseases, they explain 
the origin of many otherwise inexplicable things in the 
life of the afflicted." He instances a case of nervous 
disorder, in which the patient constantly showed signs 
of fear, anger or other strong emotions ; and the case 
was explained as the result of a fright experienced 
when a child, from a man jumping from behind the cur- 
tains and greatly alarming her. Sleep walking fits was 
discovered to be the result of a child being shut up in 
a dark room as a punishment ; and her sleep walking 
was an efibrt to escape from the terrifying darkness. 

Professor Janet reports a case of a patient, in the in- 
sane asylum, who believed some one was treating her 
very cruelly. The injury she was receiving was so ter- 
rifying and overwhelming that it dulled her senses to 
everything else. While the imaginary injury was being 
inflicted she could neither see, hear nor feel anything 
but her tormenter and the fearful cruelty he was heap- 
ing upon her. 

Dr. Janet, tracing this terrible hallucination to its 
origin, found the cause in the remembrance of the cruel 
treatment she had sufifered from her guardian when a 
child. She had brooded over this until, in her disordered 
imagination, she thought this cruelty was actually being 
repeated. It seemed to her not the memory of fierce 
words, brutal blows and lacerated flesh, but the cruel 



SELF - EDUCATION THROUGH PLAY. 363 

deeds themselves actually inflicted on her again at the 
hand of her tormentor. So vivid was the memory of 
those dark and dreadful days that she could not distin- 
guish between fancy and fact ; and during the attack, 
as naturally would be the case when suffering a terrible 
injury, the sufferer would be oblivious to everything 
else. This fearful hallucination once traced to its ori- 
gin, the remedy was simple and effiectual ; a strong 
mental diversion when the attack was coming on ; to 
awaken some pleasant memory. 

Of all the impressions made on the mind perhaps noth- 
ing is ever lost. For a time it may seem forgotten, but 
it is only laid out of sight for future use. What once en- 
gaged the attention of childhood will never cease to 
influence manhood. The evil and the good, the joys 
and sorrows, the plays and the tears in the nursery, will 
at least be a factor in the deeds, duties, character and 
destiny of the man out in the world. 

Hence the duty binding on all those who have the care 
of children is to make home the sweetest place on earth ; 
a place of love, order and repose ; a temple of purity and 
innocence. Provide innocent amusements that will en- 
tertain the child, awaken the intellect and call out the 
affections of the heart. Play should be made educa- 
tional, physically, mentally, socially and morally. 

If such seeds are sown in the young heart and mind, , 
no enemy can ever go through and pick them up. They 
will grow like a tree planted by a river whose leaves 
shall not wither, bearing fruit in season ; and whatso- 
ever he doeth shall prosper. 



364 CHILD - PLAY 



And pray, do not forget the child's likes and dislikes 
is a bit of divine prophesy suffused with flesh and blood, 
and teach us to respect and confer with his tastes and 
inclinations. 



THE END. 



